The Big Fat Surprise, Nina Teicholz
The Big Fat Surprise, Nina Teicholz
23 Rating(s)
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The Big Fat Surprise
Why Butter, Meat, and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet

Author: Nina Teicholz

Narrator: Erin Bennett

Unabridged: 13 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/13/2014

Synopsis

A New York Times bestsellerNamed one of The Economist’s Books of the Year 2014Named one of The Wall Street Journal’s Top Ten Best Nonfiction Books of 2014Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2014Forbes’s Most Memorable Healthcare Book of 2014In The Big Fat Surprise, investigative journalist Nina Teicholz reveals the unthinkable: that everything we thought we knew about dietary fat is wrong. She documents how the low-fat nutrition advice of the past sixty years has amounted to a vast uncontrolled experiment on the entire population, with disastrous consequences for our health. Dish up the red meat, eggs, and whole milk! For decades, Americans have cut back on red meat and dairy products full of “bad” saturated fats. We obediently complied with nutritional guidelines to eat “heart healthy” fats found in olive oil, fish, and nuts, and followed a Mediterranean diet heavy on fruits, vegetables, and grains. Yet the nation’s health has declined. What is going on?In The Big Fat Surprise, Teicholz reveals how sixty years of nutrition science has gotten it so wrong: how overzealous researchers have made basic scientific mistakes that, through a mix of ego and bias, allow dangerous misrepresentations to become dogma, and how scientists who dared oppose this consensus have been ostracized. For eight years, Teicholz has pored over the massive research literature and interviewed hundreds of leading experts to unravel the shockingly distorted claims of nutrition studies. She brings these researchers to life and shows how their ambitions, loyalties, and rivalries have undermined a field of research already full of difficult pitfalls.With a lively narrative style akin to Michael Pollan’s in The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the scientific rigor of Gary Taubes in Good Calories, Bad Calories, Teicholz convincingly upends the conventional wisdom about all fats. Her groundbreaking claim is that more dietary fat leads to better health, wellness, and fitness. Science shows that reducing the saturated fat in our diets has been disastrous for our health as a nation, and we can, guilt-free, welcome these “whole fats” back into our lives.

About Nina Teicholz

Nina Teicholz has written for Gourmet magazine, the New Yorker, the Economist, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. She also covered Latin America for National Public Radio. She lives in New York with her husband and two sons.

About Erin Bennett

Erin Bennett is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and a stage actress who played Carlie Roberts in the BBC radio drama Torchwood: Submission. She can be heard on several video games. Regional theater appearances include the Intiman, Pasadena Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Company, A Noise Within, Laguna Playhouse, and the Getty Villa. She trained at Boston University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jessica on September 08, 2016

I start this review with a disclaimer: I am a registered dietitian, the "nutritionist" profession that Teicholz spends 336 pages discrediting, berating, and I'd go so far as to say vilifying. It was a little hard not to take it personally after the umpteenth snide comment dripping with condescension......more

Goodreads review by Lauri on May 12, 2014

This is an excellent book! Nina Teicholz digs deep to uncover the truth about nutrition as we've known it for 60 years revealing how fats aren't the bad guy. What I liked the most about this book was that it was confirmation of what I have learned on my own experiment, party of one, me. I've always b......more

Goodreads review by Ayse_ on July 28, 2018

Good book that points out the importance of a balanced diet and essential fats as a part of it. Saturated fats are not bad and if you do not consume them with carbohydrates, you will be doing good to yourself. This was the point that led the scientific community in the wrong direction in the 50s, tha......more

Goodreads review by Andy on February 13, 2022

Update, 2022: This has turned out to be a surprisingly controversial review. Please see comment stream below for interesting discussions. Original review, 2018: This is un updated and more accessible version of the story told in Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet......more

Goodreads review by Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) on February 05, 2020

4.0 Stars This was a fascinating and persuasive non fiction book that analyses the flawed research that has incorrectly villianized fats over the decades. The information was detailed, yet accessible to general readers like myself. The author's arguments appeared to be quiet sound and well researched......more

Quotes

“A page-turner story of science gone wrong: what Gary Taubes did in Good Calories, Bad Calories for debunking the connection between fat consumption and obesity, Nina Teicholz now does in The Big Fat Surprise for the purported connection between fat and heart disease. Misstep by misstep, blunder by blunder, Ms. Teicholz recounts the statistical cherry-picking, political finagling, and pseudoscientific bullying that brought us to yet another of the biggest mistakes in health and nutrition: the low-fat and low-saturated fat myth for heart health.” William Davis, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wheat Belly

“Nina Teicholz reveals the disturbing underpinnings of the profoundly misguided dietary recommendations that have permeated modern society, culminating in our overall health decline. But The Big Fat Surprise is refreshingly empowering. This wonderfully researched text provides the reader with total validation for welcoming healthful fats back to the table, paving the way for weight loss, health, and longevity.” David Perlmutter, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grain Brain

“At last the whole truth about the luscious foods our bodies really need!” Christiane Northrup, MD, New York Times bestselling author

“This meticulously researched book thoroughly dismantles the current dietary dogma that fat—particularly saturated fat—is bad for us. Teicholz brings to life the key personalities in the field and uncovers how nutritional science has gotten it so wrong. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe this journalistic tour de force. I read it twice: once for the information and again just for the writing.” Michael R. Eades, MD, New York Times bestselling author of Protein Power

“For many years Americans have been told that low-fat diets are the best way to prevent heart disease and lose weight. While heart disease deaths have indeed dropped, the rate of heart disease has not and the obesity rate is increasing…This fascinating book raises important issues as Americans battle obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease…Thought provoking and well worth purchasing.” Library Journal (starred review)

“Journalist Teicholz combs the science, or lack thereof, to learn how the fats in the American diet grew horns and cloven hooves…Solid, well-reported science in the Gary Taubes mold.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Awards

  • Library Journal Best Book
  • Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books
  • Economist Best Book
  • Wall Street Journal Best Book
  • Mother Jones Best Book
  • Forbes Magazine Pick
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