2022 NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS FINALIST -- HEALTH: GENERAL
"It is exceptionally well organized and presented, making it an ideal
and highly recommended addition to personal, community, college, and
university library Health/Medicine collections." --Midwest Book Review
Nature puts a "survival switch" in our bodies to protect us from
starvation. Stuck in the "on" position, it's the hidden source of weight
gain, heart disease, and many other common health struggles. But you can
turn it off.
Dr. Richard Johnson has been on the cutting edge of research into the
cause of obesity for more than a decade. His team's discovery of the
fructose-powered survival switch--a metabolic pathway that animals in
nature turn on and off as needed, but that our modern diet has
permanently fixed in the "on" position, where it becomes a fat
switch--revolutionized the way we think about why we gain weight.
In Nature Wants Us to Be Fat, he details the mounting evidence on how
this switch is responsible both for excess fat storage and for many of
the major diseases endemic to the Western world, including heart
disease, cancer, and dementia. Dr. Johnson also reveals the surprising
link between the survival switch and health conditions such as gout,
kidney disease, liver disease, stroke--and even behavioral issues like
addiction and ADHD. And, most important, he shares a science-based plan
to help readers fight back against nature.
Guided by ongoing clinical research--plus fascinating observations from
the animal kingdom, evolution, and history--Dr. Johnson takes you along
on an eye-opening investigation into:
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What you can do to turn off your survival switch
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What we have in common with hibernating bears, sperm whales, and the
world's fattest bird
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Why it's fructose (not glucose) that drives insulin resistance and
metabolic disease
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The foods we eat that trigger the body to make its own fructose
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The surprising role salt and dehydration play in fat accumulation
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The surprising link between the survival switch and health conditions
such as gout and liver and kidney diseases, and even behavioral issues
like addiction and ADHD
Dr. Johnson not only provides new recommendations for how we can prevent
or treat obesity, but also how we can use this information to reduce our
risk of developing disease. Nature wants us to be fat, and when we
understand why, we gain the tools we need to lose weight and optimize
our health.
