48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Are Not Completely To Blame For Your Obesity, October 2, 2008
This review is from: Toxic Fat: When Good Fat Turns Bad (Hardcover)
From: www.BasilAndSpice.com
Book Review: Toxic Fat: When Good Fat Turns Bad (Thomas Nelson, 2008)
by Barry Sears
"If you have a chronic disease (diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, cancer, or a neurological disorder), it's quite likely that a major underlying cause of your current condition comes from seemingly well-meaning governmental agricultural programs initiated more than 30 years ago."--Dr.Barry Sears
Dr. Sears spent two years researching Toxic Fat. This new book may be a bit controversial, but it may also be groundbreaking as the general public begins to read about why our country's citizens have physically changed during the last 25 years.
Dr. Sears mapped out Toxic Fat in 13 chapters covering: the obesity epidemic, nutrition, inflammation, good and toxic fat, toxic fat syndrome, his Zone plan, fish oil benefits, anti-inflammatory meals and recipes.
The Toxic Fat Syndrome--What is it?
Dr. Sears writes that the condition occurs when obesity is viewed as inflammation-induced and is either benign or malignant. As malignant, the fat acts like a tumor, it quickly spreads to every organ in the body. The process begins with excess body fat, spreading through the blood, resulting with chronic disease--Alzheimer's, allergies, asthma, Type-2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease. Signs of the silent inflammation are high triglycerides, low HDL, and high insulin.
Toxic Fat also includes several appendixes which should NOT be skipped over, but read thoroughly as they provide explanations from a doctor-researcher's understanding, made comprehensible to the general public.
* Blood Testing For Silent Inflammation--an important section about what you need to do for yourself.
* Hormones--"While some hormones, such as estrogen, testosterone, and growth hormone, do decrease with age, others--such as insulin and pro-inflammatory eicosanoids--increase with age....Ultimately by controlling both insulin and eicosanoids, you will achieve the fountain of youth (improved wellness) by reversing Toxic Fat Syndrome."
* Fish Oil--Covers usage, history of fish oil, problems with eating contaminated fish.
* Insulin Resistance--author explains that the problem begins in adipose tissue.
* Nutrigenomics--the diet affects the genes, mentions reservatrol (a wellness buzzword), fruits and vegetables as a necessity, aspirin usage.
* Zone Food Blocks--this idea is revisited from prior published books.
Key Points of Toxic Fat:
* Being overweight or obese is not necessarily your fault, but rather is a reflection of "adverse interaction of your genes with radical changes that have taken place in the American diet over the past 25 years."
* "Everything you have heard about the `cause' and the `cure' for the current obesity epidemic is probably dead wrong."
* Obesity is a form of cancer driven by inflammation.
* Some extra body fat can be good.
* Lean doesn't always mean a person is healthy.
* Eating less and exercising more may not work.
* Toxic Fat Syndrome is caused by diet.
* Results from a changed diet will occur within 30 days.
* Diet must include low fat protein, low glycemic carbohydrates, and high dose fish oil.
* Super fish oil contains GLA and will slow the rate of aging.
Another buzzword in the weight loss and wellness community is fish oil. Dr. Sears, a researcher in the dietary control of inflammation, has included an entire chapter and an Appendix devoted to the subject in Toxic Fat.
Toxic Fat's recipes are simple to prepare and utilize common ingredients--lean meats, low-fat dairy, beans, spices, herbs, vegetables, fruits. Each recipe is divided into a man's or woman's portion requirement. Examples:
* Crab Bisque--uses skim or 1% milk
* Taco Burger--bun free, prepared with 90% fat-free ground beef
* Apple and Cheese Melt--uses low-fat mozzarella
Key to this book, is the Bibliography, where Dr. Sears notes his numerous pages of research.
Toxic Fat is written from a doctor's medical viewpoint, so that the typical reader can understand what the new research means, how it can be applied, and how weight can be lost. A controversial book, Dr. Sears writes that our obesity epidemic's roots were planted back in the 1980s when refined carbohydrates (pop/soda, candy, processed foods), and some oils (soy, corn) became cheap. This paired with our dramatic decrease in the consumption of fish oil created what he calls the Perfect Nutritional Storm. Toxic Fat builds upon Dr. Sears's past books--The Zone, Omega Rx Zone. Not just a do this and lose weight book, Toxic Fat follows the modern scope of wellness for the whole body--which includes weight loss as prevention of further disease. Toxic Fat puts real-time information in the hands of its readers and sets them on the road to recovery and wellness.
A former research scientist at the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Barry Sears is the author of several health books, selling more than 5 million copies. He continues his research into the dietary control of inflammation at his non-profit Inflammation Research Foundation.
A BestSeller Review
5 Stars
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dr Sears breaks new ground with his coverage of what are, essentially, the same recommendations he's made from the start., September 26, 2008
This review is from: Toxic Fat: When Good Fat Turns Bad (Hardcover)
I got my copy of TFS a few days ago and was able to make my way through it in a single (long) night. It is a quick read, especially if you are familiar with the concepts from his previous books and don't have to re-read some of the more dense material.
I thought the book was excellent! It was certainly focused and you could tell that Dr. Sears went to a lot of effort to make the book digestible for new comers. He saved much of the science for the appendix section and even that was slightly watered down when compared to some of his other books.
In the past I have been very critical of folks that suffer from all the modern day afflictions caused by the food they eat yet, apparently, make no effort to change their habits. This book is extremely enlightening in that sense.
My only complaints, if there are any to be made, is that I felt like the book may have been a little too focused on the idea of 'toxic fat' and there were too many pages dedicated to recipes. Obviously this was a conscious decision by Dr Sears and when all of his books are viewed as a whole this complaint is pretty bogus.
The core message remains basically the same since 'Enter The Zone'. Each successive book is a slight evolution of his original dietary/lifestyle recommendations to make them either more effective or palpable to the general public. Each book supports those recommendations from slightly different angles and serves to deepen the argument for them.
What Dr Sears has built over the years is a pool of literature that justifies and explains a method to dramatically improve the health and well being of individuals and seems to be the only way out of what is increasingly being acknowledged as a worldwide inflammation epidemic.
Dr Sears simply does not get enough credit for what he has done. I would highly encourage anyone remotely interested in their health and well being to read his latest work and then head straight to the book store to pick up all of his other books. You will not regret it.
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