Sugar Nation: The Hidden Truth Behind America's Deadliest Habit and the Simple Way to Beat It [Hardcover]

Jeff O'Connell (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 19, 2011

THIS BOOK COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE

-Every five seconds, one more person develops diabetes.
-Worldwide, 285 million people are affected by type 2 diabetes.
-Many of them have no idea.

Here is the personal story of one man who has unearthed the mysteries of this global epidemic and offers hard-won practical advice for how readers can take control of their lives and combat this deadly disease.

"Sugar Nation is a must-read! As a fitness expert myself, who has dealt with family diabetes and coaching families on how to limit their sugar intake, this book is a fundamental tool in educating the world on just how dangerous dietary sugar can be. Jeff O'Connell's direct yet user-friendly approach to this important and overlooked subject is more than refreshing. All will benefit from picking this book up."
--Jennifer Nicole Lee, author of The Jennifer Nicole Lee Fitness Model Diet

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeff O'Connell is editorial director and publisher at Bodybuilding.com, part of Liberty Media Corporation. He was formerly editor-in-chief at Muscle & Fitness and executive writer at Men's Health, where he remains a contributing editor. His feature writing has been cited in both the Best American Sports Writing and Best American Science and Nature Writing anthologies. He has coauthored four books, including Mario Lopez's Knockout Fitness and LL Cool J's Platinum Workout, which became a New York Times bestseller.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (July 19, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401323448
• ISBN-13: 978-1401323448
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #157,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeff O'Connell is editor-in-chief at Bodybuilding.com, the Internet's largest fitness site. He was formerly editor-in-chief at Muscle & Fitness and executive writer at Men's Health. His areas of interest include health, fitness, nutrition, personal finance, and profiles, many of which have been cover stories. Much of his profile writing focuses on either celebrities or subculture figures coexisting uneasily with the modern world.

Along the way, his service journalism has been nominated for a Maggie Award, and his feature writing has earned honorable mention in both The Best American Sports Writing and The Best American Science & Nature Writing anthologies.

O'Connell has also co-authored four books, most recently KNOCKOUT BODY, with Mario Lopez; and the New York Times Bestseller LL COOL J's PLATINUM WORKOUT, with LL Cool J. His new book, SUGAR NATION, releases in July 2011 with Hyperion books.

O'Connell received his bachelor's and master's degrees from UCLA. He lives in Boise, Idaho.

Learn more about Jeff O'Connell at his website, www.jeffoconnell.net

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 85 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars No sugar-coated discussion here! July 27, 2011

By Author, Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health

Format:Hardcover

Jeff O'Connell exposes what has got to be one of the largest health "crimes" ever committed in the history of health, medicine, and nutrition: The blundering, profiteering, and counterproductive information that passes for advice from agencies like the American Diabetes Association and practicing physicians.

Incredibly, much of the advice offered people with pre-diabetes or diabetes makes the situation WORSE, from the bad advice on diet, medications that add to the problem, and neglect of simple lifestyle practices. O'Connell makes the case that diabetes is controllable, even curable, in a great many of the people who thought they were resigned to a lifestyle of drugs, complications, and early deaths.

I, too, have lived the story that the author describes, having clawed my way back from being a diabetic 20 years ago, now completely diabetes-free---no drugs in sight. As a practicing cardiologist, I've actually gotten angry calls from colleagues who were upset that I had instructed patients to stop their medications and insulin and REVERSED their diabetes--patients CURED with normal HbA1c and blood sugar, yet my colleagues could not grasp the concept of cure.

The author brings a compelling, thoughtful, and impassioned discussion that needs to be broadcasted wider and louder. It's an excellent read with the message told at street level language with real people and real situations.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book! July 23, 2011

By Dr. James A. Wortman

Format:Hardcover

Jeff has done a masterful job of documenting his personal quest to understand and manage his pre-diabetes. Along the way he deftly eviscerates much of the current medical "wisdom" on this and related conditions. The inherent foolishness of managing a food intolerance by prescribing the very foods that are not tolerated only to be then managed by a plethora of medications is exposed for all to see. The pillars of the medical establishment in diabetes and nutrition come off looking quite badly in Jeff's common-sense approach to discovering both the underlying cause of his condition and the effective, non-pharmocological therapies that are not officially sanctioned. He spends time with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners of low-carbohydrate diets in the therapeutic setting and does a good job of explaining that approach and why it is so effective and sensible. (Full disclosure - he spent a few days with me to better understand the problem in the context of the indigenous populations with whom I work.)

I like this book even though Jeff's emphasis on exercise is somewhat of a departure from my approach which focusses mainly on carbohydrate reduction. Having said that, I find his accounts of the benefits of exercise and, especially high intensity interval training (HIIT), compelling enough that I have added that to my usual exercise routine.

Like Gary Taubes', "Good Calories Bad Calories" and "Why We Get Fat", the new Atkins book by Westman, Phinney and Volek, and the just-published, "The Art and Science of Low-Carbohydrate Living" by Volek and Phinney, Jeff's book is now on the must read list for scientists, physicians and affected individuals.

For anyone who is interested in understanding the biggest health challenge the world is currently facing, this global epidemic of diet-related chronic disease, and who is seeking a sensible, effective way out of this self-inflicted disaster, I highly recommend this book.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars So good and yet so not the whole story January 3, 2012

By HealthyHerb

Format:Hardcover

This is such a hard book to rate properly as there are some parts in it that are so great and worthy of bringing to everyone's attention, and some parts that are so skewed and can do more harm than good as they do not tell the whole story on a nutritional front.

Yes, like other reviewers, I had found the title to be a bit misleading. It should have perhaps been called "Carb Wars", as instead of educating and pointing out the differences between the quality of different carbs like spinach vs white rice, it basically throws them all in one bucket and labels carbs as "bad" to be avoided foods. I thought it would have been nice to emphasize the dangers of refined or processed carbs and sugars, rather than making brown rice and fruits seem like horrible ideas that need to be avoided and in turn substituted for butter or bacon.

The best parts of this book are Jeff's style of writing and research on what is happening on the system front. He did a lot of hard work no doubt and his exposing the medical and health systems and agencies is brilliant, which will hopefully inspire each person to take more accountability for their own health.

Overall, I think that the book exemplifies what happens when someone eats a junk-food based diet, to be awoken by some disease, and then swings all the way to the other extreme of counting and watching every calorie and nutrient number of their food....which to me is not a natural way to live. There are more sustainable options for diabetics like the work of Dr. Gabriel Cousens.