Monday, October 22, 2007

Food, Weight and Disease

Every so often a book comes along that seems so important to me that I drop what I'm doing and pour over it in a state of magnificent obsession. Everything else gets put on the back burner.

And so it was last week, after accidentally hearing an interview on CNN---which I rarely watch--- with an author who has written a ground breaking book on diet, weight and disease. I found what he was saying to be so right-on from my own experience, that I was overjoyed to finally be hearing it on the tellie, or anywhere for that matter. I then promptly went out and found this newly published book and have since waded though it. It's highly scientific and laborious to read, but I managed to finish it late yesterday afternoon.

A couple of my readers have e-mailed me from time to time to say I appear to be in pretty good shape for my age (39, next question) and would I talk about my fitness and diet program in a blog post or two? I've always chosen to forgo such self-serving chatter even though I have opinions on the subject and have never written anything on it until now. One thing's for sure, although I exercise, hike and live an active lifestyle, I am anything but a body-Nazi. If anything, I'm the way I am because I live the findings that this book recommends and have for years now.

I'll name the book tomorrow and begin the job of sharing the salient points and how in my opinion they relate to weight, mood, disease and obesity.

If we think the science of global warming is controversial and political, we have no idea of the history of the politics and science of food and its relation to obesity and disease.

Come to think of it, maybe even Al Gore could benefit from the information in this new book. However it's not politically correct eating, so maybe he won't.



3 comments:

Luther said...

My twenty pounds extra can hardly wait....

S.S. said...

Prediction: The book is "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes, and it is the single best volume on the subject I've ever read, bar none.

Taubes started the popular inquiry into refined carbs in the American diet six years ago with a groundbreaking article in the New York Times Magazine. His new effort is exhaustively researched, free of ideology, and draws conclusions that seem obvious, one you think about them.

Webutante said...

You're absolutely 1000%, correct Mark. And Taubes traces the controversary and theories of what causes weight-gain, disease and depression back for centuries. It's a dazzling book for anyone who's willing to open their mind and reprogram their eating habits.