The Case Against Sugar - Softcover

Gary Taubes

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846276373 ISBN 13: 9781846276378

Publisher: Portobello Books Ltd, 2017

Synopsis

More than half a billion adults and 40 million children on the planet are obese. Diabetes is a worldwide epidemic. Evidence increasingly shows that these illnesses are linked to the other major Western diseases: hypertension, heart disease, even Alzheimer's and cancer, and that shockingly, sugar is likely the single root cause. Yet the nutritional advice we receive from public health bodies is muddled, out of date, and frequently contradictory, and in many quarters still promotes the unproven hypothesis that fats are the greatest evil. With expert science and compelling storytelling, Gary Taubes investigates the history of nutritional science which, shaped by a handful of charismatic and misguided individuals, has for a hundred years denied the impact of sugar on our health. He exposes the powerful influence of the food industry which has lobbied for sugar's ubiquity - the Sugar Association even today promoting 'sugar's goodness' - and the extent that the industry has corrupted essential scientific research. He delves into the science of sugar, exposes conventional thinking that sugar is 'empty calories' as a myth, and finds that its addictive pleasures are resulting in worldwide consumption as never experienced before, to devastating effect. The Case Against Sugar is a revelatory read, which will fundamentally change the way we eat.

About this title

Review:

'Hard-hitting and important... you will find yourself looking at the packet of golden caster sugar in your cupboard and the elderflower cordial in your fridge with new suspicion, if not loathing' -- Bee Wilson, Sunday Times

'Like a terrier with a bone, [Taubes] won't let purveyors of this bankrupt diet paradigm get away with a bit of pragmatic sugar reduction tokenism. In order to firmly hammer the nails in the coffin of the case of sugar, he sets out to nail the lie on which it is predicated: that the tidal wave of obesity and type 2 diabetes sweeping the western world is caused by overconsumption and sedentary behaviour... Taubes isn't the only person to challenge the facile idea that we get fat simply because we consume more calories than we expend, but his clear and persuasive argument that obesity is a hormonal disorder, switched on by sugar, is one that urgently needs wider airing' -- Observer

'A devastating critique of the way the sugar industry has shaped nutritional science in its favour for more than a century' -- Financial Times

'Compelling... Perhaps at long last, sugar is getting its just desserts' --Economist

'Taubes's writing is both inflammatory and copiously researched. It is also well-timed... Hard-charging (and I'll add game-changing' -- New York Times

'[A] blitz of a book... Mr Taubes's argument is so persuasive that, after reading The Case Against Sugar, this functioning chocoholic cut out the Snacking Bar and stopped eating cakes and white bread.. The Case Against Sugar should be a powerful weapon against future misinformation' -- Eugenia Bone, Wall Street Journal

'A book stuffed with scientific detail... as a rallying call for long-term change, it's very hard to ignore' -- Literary Review

'Highly informative and extremely well-written' -- Delicious Magazine

'Gary Taubes is the best writer on nutrition science in the world. Anyone seeking to understand the role of sugar in our diets should read this book' --Ian Leslie, author of Curious

'Taubes's prose is perfectly judged, as compelling as a slow-motion car crash... Can Taubes's expertly written and disturbing book change [the] culture?... Full marks - and a big red lollipop - for making a valiant attempt' -- New Statesman

'An eye-opening read... Sobering [and] thought-provoking, not least for revealing how society has been led down a blind alley on matters of healthy eating' --Delicious Magazine

About the Author:

GARY TAUBES is the co-founder of the Nutrition Science Initiative and the author of Why We Get Fat and The Diet Delusion. An award-winning science and health journalist, his writing has appeared in Discover, Science, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, Nature and the British Journal of Medicine. He has received three Science in Society Journalism Awards from the National Association of Science Writers and is the recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research. He lives in Oakland, California.

About this edition

• Publisher: Portobello Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1846276373
• ISBN 13: 9781846276378
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384