The Big Fat Surprise
With eye-opening scientific rigour, The Big Fat Surprise makes the ground-breaking claim that more, not less, dietary fat — including saturated fat — is what leads to better health and wellness. Science shows that we have been needlessly avoiding meat, cheese, whole milk, and eggs for decades, and that we can now, guilt-free, welcome these delicious foods back into our lives.
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In The Big Fat Surprise, investigative journalist Nina Teicholz reveals the unthinkable: everything we thought we knew about dietary fat is wrong.
For the past 60 years, we have been told that the best possible diet involves cutting back on fat, especially saturated fat. But what if the low-fat diet is itself the problem? What if the very foods we’ve been denying ourselves — the creamy cheeses, the sizzling steaks — are the key to reversing the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease?
In this captivating, vibrant, and convincing narrative, based on a nine-year-long investigation, Teicholz shows how the misinformation about saturated fats took hold in the scientific community and the public imagination, and how recent findings have overturned these beliefs. She explains why the Mediterranean diet is not the healthiest, and how we might be replacing trans fats with something even worse.
With eye-opening scientific rigour, The Big Fat Surprise makes the ground-breaking claim that more, not less, dietary fat — including saturated fat — is what leads to better health and wellness. Science shows that we have been needlessly avoiding meat, cheese, whole milk, and eggs for decades, and that we can now, guilt-free, welcome these delicious foods back into our lives.
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What our readers are saying
“
The information in this book is really important to know, so useful after years, maybe your whole life of barking up the complete wrong tree thanks to Big Food and our drug-happy Doctors. There is SO much research in the back of this book, I was blown away by the level of research that has gone into this book.
Rebekah Parker
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It is funny how the scientific nutrition community has been so dogmatic about retaining this fat theory in the face of ever mounting evidence to the contrary.. A great summary of the historical context, power players and honest review of the scientific findings.
Hats off to Nina and others for trying to correct this poorly supported theory and expose the interests behind it.
Ben M
“
Teicholz spent nearly a decade working on The Big Fat Surprise and it shows. I thoroughly enjoyed this meticulously researched and engagingly written book.
This is one of those landmark books which shook the foundations of a subject area. It certainly transformed my understanding of diet and nutrition generally. Alongside the scientific discussion, though, another theme of the book is the tyranny of specious scientific consensus which becomes almost impossible to displace.
Cartick
About Nina Teicholz
Nina Teicholz is an investigative science journalist and author. Her international bestseller, The Big Fat Surprise has upended the conventional wisdom on dietary fat--especially saturated fat--and has challenged the very core of our nutrition policy.
The executive editor of "The Lancet" wrote, "this is a disquieting book about scientific incompetence, evangelical ambition, and ruthless silencing of dissent that has shaped our lives for decades…researchers, clinicians, and health policy advisors should read this provocative book. ”A review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition said, “This book should be read by every scientist…[and] every nutritional science professional.” In the BMJ (British Medical Journal), the journal's former editor wrote, “Teicholz has done a remarkable job in analysing [the] weak science, strong personalities, vested interests, and political expediency” of nutrition science.
The Big Fat Surprise was named a 2014 *Best Book* by The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Mother Jones, and Library Journal. It was named one of the best Nutrition audiobooks of all time" by BookAuthority.
Teicholz's writing has also been published in The BMJ, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Independent, and The New Yorker, among others. In addition, Teicholz is the Executive Director of The Nutrition Coalition, a non-profit group that promotes evidence-based nutrition policy. She has testified before the Canadian Senate and U.S. Department of Agriculture about the need for reform of dietary guidelines.
Teicholz attended Yale and Stanford where she studied biology and majored in American Studies. She has a master’s degree from Oxford University and served as associate director of the Center for Globalization and Sustainable Development at Columbia University.
