Customer Reviews

Fat: It's Not What You Think

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I have acquired a library of books on health and nutrition in my own attempt to understand the link between chronic degenerative diseases and diet. There is definitely a link between the low-fat, grain based diet of the last half of the 20th century and our current epidemic of health problems. Writers and researchers like Pollan, Plank, Taubes, Enig, Fallon and Simopolous are making landmark progress towards providing a more accurate understanding how our current diet leads to disease. It is important to understand this because we have been misled. Undoing that mis-education is no easy task. Who has time or wants to read all those books? More importantly, how many people have the background in biochemistry to understand it?

Leas' book makes it easy for anyone to have at least a fundamental grasp of the basics of fatty acid metabolism. She has condensed the works of over 20 reputable researchers and science writers into one book. When you finish her book, you will understand each of the various types of fatty acids in the diet and the unique and essential roles they play in managing our health. For a generation and a half, we trusted information that was not challenged until now. Anyone taking statins or those who think they have 'high' cholesterol, must read this book. After you read Leas' book you will want to make some major changes in your diet. Ones you did not think possible like drinking whole milk, eating eggs and using coconut oil. You may even come to regard crackers and rice cakes with the same contempt you once held for eggs and whole dairy. Keep the skin on the chicken and bake it in coconut oil; now you can enjoy whole real food again!

Thank you Connie Leas for your concise synopsis of information about fats. I now have something I can give to my clients to read that will help them let go of their fear of fat. The references in the back of the book are a great starting point for those who want more detailed information.

It's one thing to be lied to by the medical community for their monetary gain from the pharmaceutical companies, but when the falsehoods affect our lifespan and quality of life, somone needs to draw a line in the sand. That is exactly what Connie Leas has done in this book, by compiling decades of research on all types of fat and its effects.

Chapter by chapter, as I got farther into the book, the more angry I became. As a person who has fought a weight problem all her life, I realize now that the advice I was given and the diet I was told to follow did nothing but make and keep me fat.

Ms. Leas' book is a must-read for anyone interested in weight-loss, better health, the control and prevention of type 2 diabetes, and the food we put into our mouths. Some people may not want to know, and will prefer to live in ignorance. Unfortunately, they will pay the price. The rest of us will read this book, and finally understand why we're not as healthy as we'd like to be.

This is one of the most intriguing books you'll ever read in your entire life. In just over 150 pages of text along with another 75 pages of references and charts, the author arms you with powerful evidence that dietary fat is not responsible for fat on the bodies and that healthy individuals need to be consuming higher amounts of fat than they currently are to stay that way. It's counterintuitive to our fat-fearing culture that hasn't got the first clue about what fats are healthy for them and which are not. This book should be your new go-to resource for anyone who still doesn't understand why fat is healthy. Get a copy for yourself and purchase extras to give away to your doctor, friends, family and anyone else who is stuck on fat being bad. Connie Leas clearly explains why it is not.

If there is a carton of skim milk in your refrigerator or low fat ice cream in your freezer, then you will feel like you've discovered the secret to eternal happiness after reading this book!

Crud. Glop. These are just a few of the unpretentious terms you'll see employed in Leas' "commonsensical" take on fat. We often hear terms like "triglyceride" and "polyunsaturated" thrown about in the media but most of us have only a vague idea of what these terms mean. We know "monounsaturated" is somehow synonymous with olive oil, but few of us associate it with a porterhouse steak. Leas breaks down these overused terms and, in the process, fleshes out several surprising misperceptions surrounding fat -"both the kind you eat and the kind you carry around."

The biggest fallacy Leas overturns is the idea that eating saturated fat makes you fat. Yes, you read that correctly. If you haven't yet heard the life-changing news, EATING SATURATED FAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU FAT! As Nina Planck implores on the back cover of Leas' book, "Butter is good for you and corn oil isn't. Don't be the last one to know why: read this book!"

Do you know that saturated fat is not the killer fat that it has been made out to be, but is absolutely necessary for many essential body functions? Also, that cholesterol is so important in many vital metabolic functions that your body produces its own? That the two organs of the body that use the most cholesterol are the brain and adrenal glands in that order? That nothing in your body runs properly without adequate cholesterol and proper amounts of the various kinds of fat? We were created to run on proteins, fats,and carbohydrates. Each of the three serve different functions in our bodies and are absolutely necessary for good health. Americans are fat phobic. It's understandable with the bad rap saturated fat has taken from the mainstream press, which has been spurred on by false information given out by the medical authorities. Also, healthful saturated fat has been lumped together with the killer trans fats giving it an undeserved horrible reputation.

"Fat It's Not What You Think," is a well written, easily understandable, very informative and at times humorous look at the vitally important subject of fat's role in a well nourished body. I've read several great books on the subject of fat. This book's author, Connie Leas presents new information that no other book that I've read contains. It also gives all the basic information necessary to understanding the various types of fats, their role in metabolic functions, the truth about cholesterol, saturated fat, trans fat, etcetera. I call it, "Fats 101."

This is a great book that summarises the work of some of the most important health books that have been released recently including those by Gary Taubes, Pollan, Nina Planck, Mary Enig, Sally Fallon, and others.

This book explains that:

- Your fat functions as an endocrine organ and releases hormones just like your thyroid gland or your pituitary gland.
- Fat is the primary building material for cell walls.
- Immunity is decreased when fat levels in the body are very low.
- Fat cells behave differently depending on where they are in the body.
- The BMI system puts many healthy people in the overweight category. A better measurement of obesity is hip to waist ratio and body fat percentage.
- A BMI of 25 (or 26 - 28) may be optimal for lowest mortality risk.
- Total cholesterol of 200 - 240 is in the normal range.
- All fats are a mix of saturated and unsaturated fats.
- Some saturated fats have anti-cancer benefits.
- Saturated fats have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.
- Natural trans fats in butter are not harmful and are not the same as man-made trans fats.
- Low fat milk is linked with infertility in women as compared to women who drank whole milk.
- The only milk to choose is (possibly raw) whole milk as skim milks have whey protein and milk powders added.
- Your genes affect the impact food has on you and what you eat affects your gene expression.
- Free range and organic meats and eggs are the best choices.
- Eating saturated fat doesn't make you fat and doesn't hurt your heart or cause heart disease.
- Trans fat and saturated fat used to be lumped together in the reference information used to look at the links between different types of foods and health. Only recently have they been listed separately, as they should be. Doesn't that fact explain so much!


I had just a few minor quibbles with this book. It fence sits on some of the theories that Taubes pulled apart so clearly in his books such as the 'thrifty gene' and the concept of 'calories in, calories out' for example, which makes it not as clear (or accurate) as it could be on some issues which may confuse some readers. The book also comments that we need to eat 50% of out fat calories as saturated fat in order for calcium to be taken up by our bones, but then recommends that we eat only a third of our fat as saturated fat. The argument she makes about how obesity is genetic and so we can't do much about it was also poorly done; as surely what has changed is our environment and not our genes and the problem is the way our genes are reacting to our environment which is absolutely something we can do something about by changing what we eat and so on.

There were 5 or 6 small issues with some of the content, I thought. But by far the vast majority of the content of this book was just excellent.

This book is great if you are just after a very brief overview of this topic, it is a very easy and brief read.

I don't think I'd have properly understood all these issues quite as well without having read the books listed below first, as they each provide so much extra information and references, but this book is still an excellent introduction to this topic. It also contains some extra information that is not in any of these books.

If you'd like more information on why coconut oil is good for you, why the saturated fat/cholesterol = heart disease hypothesis is utterly dead scientifically speaking, and why a low fat, high carb and low calorie diet is not the best path to maintaining health or a healthy weight, see books such as Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage), Know Your Fats : The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol, Eat Fat, Lose Fat: The Healthy Alternative to Trans Fats and Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck plus The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It.

This book explains that saturated fat sounds scary and gluggy and is often described as 'artery clogging' and 'not heart healthy' but the truth is very different. Saturated fat isn't saturated by some sort of horrific 'glop' but by hydrogen! The same element that is in water.

Saturated fats such as coconut oil are an important part of a healthy diet. We need to eat them to be healthy. As the author says in this book, stop fooling with fats and cook with butter and lard!

Don't believe all the anti-saturated fat and cholesterol hype. As this book explains, those myths continue purely for selfish personal reasons and because of the interference of vested interest groups in science.

Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis