Product: The Big Fat Surprise
Subject: The Big Fat Surprise Book Review
Author: Nina Teicholz
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Length: 496 Pages
Price: $13.05 ( Retail )
Cheapest Place to Buy: Amazon.com
Our Rating: 8.5 out of 10
This review is based on the book; The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by Nina Teicholz. We will consider the book’s overall topic and underlying theme; who the book is primarily aimed at and the pros and cons of the book.
This book is very much a book about food, but with a difference and it will completely turn upside down everything you think you know about food.
So, here is our Big Fat Surprise book review…
Product Overview
The essence of this book is that everything we know and have ever been told about diets is completely wrong. For the past sixty years or so, we have had it drummed into us that we need to eat low fat foods.
However, during her nine years of research, author Nina Teicholz has investigated why we need to eat a high fat and high nutrient diet, in order to be healthy and to fulfill a sense of true well-being in our lives.
What she has found is that we have all been following the wrong diet. We all need to consume eggs, meat and dairy produce, they should not be eliminated from our diet. The past sixty years of us all eating the recommended low fat diets, dictated by the likes of Ancel Benjamin Keys, have actually contributed to a rise in obesity rates and metabolic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes.
Over 496 pages, Teicholz explaims why we can all live relatively healthily on a high fat diet; why the low fat diet is potentially harmful to our health and ultimately why saturated fats are good for us and are nor related to Cardiovascular disease.
The book most definitely makes you question everything you thought you already knew about healthy eating and losing weight. However, this book is most defiantly not a diet book, it is a book about eating healthily and sensibly and not eliminating any food groups.
The Good & The Bad
The Pros:
- There is a lot of factual information in this book that illustrates the changing American diet. The factual information is written in an easy to read manner. If you like reading up on research, then this book hands it to you in a condensed and easy to read format.
- This is an honest book with Teicholz simply putting her viewpoint across, based on her years of research. As with all research, you can either believe it or not, (many who have read her book state that the research is flawed); or you can see it as useful in helping you to decide to eat a wider and more nutritious diet. However, this book is thought provoking and is in no way a boring read.
- The book has won many accolades including: A New York Times bestseller, Named one of The Economist’s Books of the Year 2014, Named one of The Wall Street Journal’s Top Ten Best Nonfiction Books of 2014, Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2014, Forbes’s Most Memorable Healthcare Book of 2014, Named a Best Food Book of 2014 by Mother Jones, Named one of Library Journal‘s Best Books of 2014.
The Cons:
- Food groups are once again portrayed as good and evil, and is this really healthy? The villains portrayed in this book are carbohydrates, sugar and flour, with Teicholz stating that they need to be radically reduced within our diet.
- Many people have read this book believing it to be a diet book, which it is not. It is a book steeped in history which tells of why the previously thought low fat diets, and in particular the Mediterranean Diet, are not so good for us. The book tells of how they have caused an epidemic of obesity and heart related diseases. As a history and factual book it is fantastic, but if you want a diet book, then this is not the book for you.
Who is This Book For?
When writing The Big Fat Surprise review, we had to consider who the book is primarily aimed at. To be honest, this book would benefit everyone for a whole variety of reasons.
This book would benefit the individual who has been trying for years to lose weight but without success. This would be helpful for academics who read and research food sciences. This book would also greatly benefit those working in the health and medical industries, simply because of the vast amount of research that has been carried out into diets, past and present.
Realistically though, anyone who has an interest in food, and who wants to eat a healthier diet and lead a healthier lifestyle, would greatly benefit from reading this book.
Our Final Take on The Book
So overall what is our Big Fat Surprise book review conclusion? Well, to be honest this book gets a huge thumbs up. It is factual, interesting and a thoroughly good read. It gets you thinking about why we eat the food that we do.
If you are prepared to have your food world turned upside down and can think outside of the box, then this book is most defiantly for you. We could all learn an awful lot from reading it.
