The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat, and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by Nina Teicholz

I give this book 10 out of 10 acorns.

The author has delved into nutrition and health research back to the 1800's. She has read every research paper published, and when she could get it, analyzed the data collected through out the various studies.

The big surprise is that although the USDA through the "food pyramid" and more recent "my plate", and the American Heart Association, and the AMA standards of practice have, since the 1950s, been recommending "vegetable oils" and a low fat diet, for optimum health, and to prevent cardiovascular and heart disease, and yet there has never been research to support those recommendations.

Impeccable research supports just the opposite, that animal fats, naturally occurring saturated fats are not only healthy but protective. The over consumption of carbohydrates (natural and otherwise) is a far worse threat to human health than the consumption of saturated fats.

We have been led into the worsening epidemic of metabolic syndrome (obesity, diabetes and heart disease) by the recommendations of our doctors, the USDA and the AHA recommendations. This is a process which began when the theory was first presented that cholesterol deposits observed in blood vessels is directly caused by the consumption of cholesterol rich foods.

The author traces the pathway by which we came to this misunderstanding. There were political and economic forces at work, which continued into 2014 when the book was published. If you have ever wondered how "research" can be corrupted, that is also explained.

It describes a healthy diet, similar to Weston A Price foundation guidelines and (some) Paleo diets. ("Paleo" is pretty variable at this point)

The book is long and detailed with footnotes throughout. The author traces the pathway by which we were led so far astray, and the consequences of these misguided decades. This book contains powerful information for those of us who seek to understand for ourselves how to have the health and vigor Weston A Price observed in the first half of the 20th century, in peoples who had not yet been reached by industrialized food.

It's available on CD.

I give this book 8 acorns out of 10.

I have not read this book. However, my housemate, who practically never reads anything besides daily newspapers and magazines, was some how made aware of this book, and thought the idea was interesting enough that they actually got the book from the library and then read it all the way through.

Any book that gets them that abnormally interested in book reading deserves high praise.