The world is facing a grim epidemic. An epidemic of obesity and diabetes. But it is not just Type 1 diabetes that is plaguing our world. Sugar is poison for a diabetic. But it is equally harmful even if you are not. And it is the root cause of all current problems for a person suffering from Type 2 diabetes and also the fuel for all forthcoming problems. In The Case Against Sugar, Gary Taubes takes you to the root cause of obesity and shows how the sugar lobby successfully diverted the scientific discourse for more than a century and pushed the blame on the victims. here’s our review of The case Against Sugar.
Gary Taubes is cofounder and senior scientific advisor of the Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI). He’s an award-winning science and health journalist, the author of Why We Get Fat and Good Calories, Bad Calories, and a former staff writer for Discover and correspondent for the journal Science.
He has received three Science in Society Journalism Awards from the National Association of Science Writers. He is also the recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research.
The Case Against Sugar
Author: Gary Taubes
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (December 27, 2016)
ISBN-10: 0307701646, 978-0307701640
The Case Against Sugar Summary
The author takes a keen look at obesity and how discussions around it have been shaped. As you would expect from a science writer and journalist of Mr. Taubes’ caliber, the book makes an airtight case against sugar and all types of sugary foods.
Obesity is one of those things that medical science has not yet been able to control with a simple pill. And that maybe because researchers have been waylaid by people who had commercial interests in use of sugar. The author takes you back to the research in the early twentieth century in Germany and Austria, which then was the hotbed of scientific discovery.
He presents various research findings from then and in recent years that establish that obesity is not, as they call it, an energy balance problem. That is, accumulation of fat depends on other problems than just a mathematical calculation of how many calories you eat and how many of these you use.
He believes that this faulty approach was called out by researchers much early in the century, but was buried by those who had interest in propagating use of sugary and carb-rich products. The author explains how Type 2 diabetes in not the result of obesity, but the cause of obesity.
In an easy to understand prose, and with substantial arguments, The Case Against Sugar brings the insulin resistance problem in public discourse. It not only substantiates that people are not fat because they eat too much, but also puts the spotlight on biological problem of obesity. Shifting the blame of obesity on the patient and making it a behavioral problem was a tactic that has put the onus on people who are forced to fight a battle they cannot win. At least not without addressing the root cause – a carb rich, sugary diet.
Is the case against sugar airtight? No, it not. And the authors alludes to that every now and then in the book. Does sugar cause diabetes and obesity, maybe it does not. But one thing is sure, if you suffer from insulin resistance or susceptible to insulin imbalance, sugar and carb rich diet will surely tip you over. If a Type 1 diabetes patient loses weight because of low insulin, we can safely say excess insulin will boost fat.
The Case Againt Sugar is a must-read for everyone who is fighting Type 2 diabetes and for parents who need to investigate and attack the root cause, than berating their kids for inactivity.
The Case Against Sugar Reviews
Daniel Engber at The Atlantic believes that the author makes an interesting cane in favor of his views, but glosses over contradicting research. However, he thinks, like the book, the correlation between sugar and obesity is still unresolved.
“Because research specific to sugar’s deleterious effects is wanting, the science, Mr Taubes concedes, is not definitive. But it is compelling.” ~ The Economist
“The case against sugar(s)” by Gary Taubes, MA from Ancestral Health Society on Vimeo.
Additional Reading
New Book Reveals the Details of How the World Got Addicted to Sugar