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Why Diet and Exercise Fail: How Current Research Contradicts Conventional Wisdom about Weight Loss

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This is one of the most intriguing books I have read on nutrition. This is a very quick read. But, it is a page turner that will get your mental wheels spinning. It contains three separate parts.

In the first one, the author debunks all the existing merits of current diet fads. The Atkins diet followers proved that eating a diet rich in fat did not cause weight gain. However, they also proved that avoiding carbohydrates did not cause weight loss as their respective weights remained fairly stable. The author also documents that many foreigners including Eskimos and French among others eat far more fat than we do. Yet, they are lean. But, they gain weight upon moving to the U.S. and eating our more balanced diet. The same is true for Asians who eat a diet focused on simple carbohydrates with a high glycemic index (white rice). Many nutritionists suggest such a diet should cause weight gain. Asians are actually very lean and only gain weight upon moving to the U.S.

The second part explores the newer avenues related to weight gain potential causes. This includes our drinking increasing amount of sodas, our suffering rising case of sleep deprivation, our experiencing higher level of hunger for unexplained reasons. All those factors have documented impact on weight gain.

The third part is the big surprise: caffeine causes weight gain. The author develops a pretty rigorous logic that seems to make sense. It starts with our changing agricultural practices. We used to feed farm animals grass and hay. And, the fish we ate relied mainly on algae for their food. All those plants are rich in healthy Omega-3s essential fatty acids. So, by eating these animals our own diet was rich in Omega-3s. With the advent of agribusiness, our farm animals are fed corn and soy. And farm fishes are not fed algae anymore. As a result, our diet has become Omega-3s deficient. This has negative health implications including sleep deprivation. The latter causes us to drink more coffee in the morning as a stimulant. Coffee further causes sleep deprivation and increases stress level within our system measured by a higher level of cortisol. In turn, sleep deprivation and stress causes hunger. This specific hunger causes us to eat more than we need and gain weight. Sleeping problems and high level of cortisol have been observed among overweight people. So, this chain reaction turns into a permanent vicious feedback loop.

The above theory also explains the obesity pandemic among the youth. This is because of their huge rise in sodas intake. The author refers to a study that shows the higher intake of sodas the higher the probability of obesity. But, the probabilities were nearly 30% higher for diet soda (that have no calories!) vs regular sodas. What gives? Well, the majority of sodas have quite a bit of caffeine. But, diet sodas have 30% more caffeine, thus the higher probability of weight gain. The more caffeine kids intake the more they overeat.

Keep in mind the author theory has not been validated by scientific studies. The author does share that many studies found no relationship between coffee intake and weight. Yet, the author explains why. He uncovered that many individuals from Nordic European descent have a gene (altered A2a adenosine receptor) that protects them from the negative effect of coffee (sleeplessness, stress, hunger and weight gain). This gene is an evolutionary adaptation for living in northern climates with less sunlight and allowing for higher absorption of Vitamin D. As a result, such individuals turn out to be heavy coffee drinkers since they enjoy only the benefits (stimulation) without the negative side effects. When these individuals are not screened out, the resulting studies studying the impact of coffee on weight gains are automatically flawed. Even worse, some of them find a relationship between coffee and weight loss. This is why diet pills include coffee as an active ingredient. To further confuse cause and effect, the same northern Europeans have a diet much richer in Omega-3s than the American one as they eat more fish that is much richer in such fatty acids. Thus, they totally avoid the whole sleeplessness-hunger-weight gain chain reaction.

At this stage, the author has advanced valid arguments why flawed scientific studies have not confirmed his hypothesis that coffee does cause weight gain. However, this remains an untested hypothesis. A rigorous scientific study that does screen out for individuals who have the protective gene has yet to be done. Hopefully, the author's insight will lead to such a study. In the mean time, for any one with weight issues it does not cost you anything to give it a try and eliminate coffee intake and increase Omega-3s.

If you are intrigued by genetic variance implication in nutrition, I also recommend the excellent The Metabolic Typing Diet: Customize Your Diet to Your Own Unique Body Chemistry. Also, of interest is Eat Right 4 Your Type: The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer & Achieving Your Ideal Weight.

This work surveys many different hypotheses for the massive increase in obesity in recent decades, not only in western countries but also in many other parts of the world. Korn surveys not only the usual culprits (fats, excessive calories, sedentary lifestyle, etc.), but also unusual ones (e. g., pollution, viruses). Some parts of his reasoning are more convincing than others.

Korn credits the successes of the Atkins diet not to restriction of carbohydrates, but to the quitting of coffee consumption. (p. 105). This may be correct in part, but cannot be the full answer. (I speak from experience. I lost 50 pounds on the Atkins Diet despite continuing to drink 2-3 cups of coffee a day). As a matter of fact, Atkins did not forbid moderate amounts of caffeine consumption, except in the short Induction phase. Atkins recommended that caffeine consumption be permanently discontinued only by those who get blood-sugar imbalances from it. (See, for instance, THE ATKINS DIABETES REVOLUTION, pp. 237-239).

Likewise, Atkins allows for some fruit-juice consumption (ibid, p. 144), and a tolerable moderate-weight-maintaining daily intake of carbs (ACE: Atkins Carbohydrate Equilibrium: ibid, pp. 129-130). Thus, such observations as fruit juices not necessarily causing obesity (Korn, p. 28), and Thais not being commonly obese despite eating mostly refined rice (Korn, pp. 26-27), are reconcilable with the premises of the Atkins diet.

Do low-carb diets often fail, in long term, because overconsumption of refined carbohydrates is not the cause of obesity? Or is it because, once the brain is trained to want an excess of carbs, it is quite difficult for many individuals to avoid drifting back to old ways of eating over the span of many years?

Nevertheless, Korn has performed a valuable service. The links between coffee, Omega6/Omega-3 imbalances, and obesity are fascinating, and clearly deserve further research.

The Enuit (Eskimos) have eaten a traditional diet extremely high in fat, yet remain lean - until they adopt a modern western diet. The rural Thai get eighty percent of their calories from refined white rice - yet it's the urban Thai who are gaining weight. Drinkers of diet soda are just as likely, if not more so, to gain weight as those who consume regular sugar-laden soda. Why?

In this fascinating book, author Daniel Matthew Korn examines both traditional and modern theories as to the reasons for weight gain in the modern era. Many of these theories seem to make good sense at first glance, but he illustrates in detail how, when examined closely, most do not hold up as complete explanations for our weight gain. This painstakingly researched book cites many specific studies as evidence, and Mr. Korn poses plausible new theories as to the possible causes of our obesity explosion.

Mr. Korn considers the link between sleep disturbance, caffeine and cortisol, the effects of stress on hunger, how the obese have higher levels of hunger, and how correlation is not necessarily cause when examining reasons for weight gain. Setting this book apart from others in its genre, he methodically debunks the fat-free craze, high-fat diets, low-carb diets, and sugar-free diets with both science and credible logic. He also notes how the types of fats we eat have changed, due to corn-fed animals (as opposed to grass-fed in the past and elsewhere in the world).

Mr. Korn's insightful conclusions absolutely merit closer examination and serious long-term studies. I have read a few studies that mentioned some of these observations, but I haven't read another book that pulled it all together like this. This book needs to be on the shelf of anyone struggling with weight. Highly recommended!

Although author Korn is not an M.D., that actually works in his favor. He is however an acute observer and avid researcher and his observations regarding the failure of dieting and exercise on our obesity epidemic actually make excellent sense. He echoes what that brave iconoclast Gary Taubes maintains in his book Good Calories, Bad Calories-that dieting only makes you hungry, no one can maintain a starvation diet for very long (except actresses) and that exercise increases appetite and burns very few calories.

It is ironic that the current emphasis on working out daily, the value of extreme exercise and the low-calorie, low fat diets have been popularized and touted by the establishment while our national obesity rate has climbed to horrific proportions. Mr. Korn examines the other factors in the environment that may be responsible for weight gain-feed-lot cattle; types of fat consumed, diet sodas, sleep deprivation and caffeine. He offers a convincing case that the factors that are making us fat are controllable and understandable.

Although I do not agree with some of his recommendations, I think his approach is valuable and I am resolved to omit caffeine from my diet as I think it makes perfect sense.

Have read more books on diet and nutrition than I can count. After awhile they become a blur, with me hoping I never have to read another such book. This book was refreshing, simply because it reminds us all that what our elders did actually was wiser.

Reminded me of an Amish friend who was perplexed at the sight of men and women who would come running by his farm every day at the same time and how one day one of the runners, a man,stopped to say hello and it turned out that the man ran to stay fit. My Amish friend commented that working his fields and not consuming fast foods or store bought foods was what kept him fit and healthy.

One area I would like to see more research in would be the issue of caffeine, since I don't think its the caffeine per se that is the problem, but the glut of Coke, Pepsi, Root Beer, Mountain Dew that are loaded with caffeine as well as sugar and all to often the horrid sugar free products.

And I agree totally with the author on the Omega 3 issue. Again my Amish and Seventh Day Adventist friends got me into flax seeds, flax seed oil, nuts and homemade cheeses and especially homemade yogurt.

This is pretty much the core of this book. And it's why I recommend the book.

Why do American's spend billions of dollars every year on diets, diet food and products and still the number of obese and overweight adults and children keeps increasing? This book by David Korn covers most of the assumptions, both the new and old about what makes us gain and lose weight and then explains some of the reasons those long held assumptions aren't correct. He lists and discusses them, one by one and uses footnotes extensively to back up his reasons why they don't work. After eliminating what doesn't work, he gives his theory on reasons for the increasing obesity in this country and some other developed parts of the world.

This book is well written and easy to read. The best part about it is that it encourages us t think outside the box on reasons for weight gain and for what will work to attain our normal weight. There just has to be more to weight loss than the currently accepted theories. There has to be something which researchers are overlooking, a missing link. Korn gives opinion on what that missing link is, and backs it up with a lot of well documented information to support his views.

While I'm still "on the fence" on some of his ideas, I think he's going in the right direction and that he is correct although maybe there are other factors along with those he writes about. His book has kept me up late at night researching some of his ideas to see if I can find additional studies or information. It's also made me much more aware of what I'm eating. Any book that does that, is a good one which is why I gave this book 5 stars.

Something has gone wrong in America with our appetites. We eat too much. That loads us down with fat. Like a thermostat that won't shut off when it's too hot, our appetites keep us eating when we don't need more, and in fact don't even want more. The result? We Americans have become shockingly overweight.

Americans have not always been fat. Even 20 years ago, the numbers were not too bad. Other countries seem still to do better than us. Why is this?

Daniel Korn gives us his answer to this puzzle. He thinks it's not because we eat too much of the wrong kind of food. And not that we don't exercise enough. He thinks instead that we Americans take in too much caffeine. That has reset our appetites (thermostats in my analogy) at a higher level, upsetting our hormone balance and otherwise wreaking havoc with our weight.

Why Diet and Exercise Fail makes the case for Daniel Korn's theory in a logical, well-researched way. He draws on fictional detective Sherlock Holmes's adage as inspiration: if you look at all the possible answers to a puzzle, then eliminate most of them one by one, what remains must be the answer. The book follows just that pattern, looking at and discarding answers based on conventional wisdom -- diet and exercise -- to focus on caffeine and related causes.

Is Daniel Korn right? Too other recent authors think not. One, Dr. David Kessler in The End of Overeating, blames food makers for foods that taste too good, driving us to "conditioned hypereating." He urges use of cognitive behavioral techniques like thought-stopping to solve overeating. Another, Dr. James Levine in Move a Little, Lose a Lot, blames sloth. He thinks we need to move more, even walk slowly on a treadmill at work while on the phone or the computer, to lose weight.

Both Kessler (former head of the Food and Drug Administration) and Levine (leading researcher at the Mayo Clinic) have strong medical credentials to back up their views. (Although Kessler concedes that his research on weight loss is outside his medical expertise, which is in pediatrics.) Daniel Korn does not. Who makes the more persuasive case?

I put my money on Daniel Korn. Unconventional though his views are, they make more sense to me than the conventional focus on diet and exercise. I doubt he has the full answer to the perplexing puzzle of why our American appetites reset to too high a level. But I think he may be on the right track.

Thousands of diet and exercise books hit bookstore shelves every year. Most add little, dressing up the same old answers -- diet and exercise -- in new clothes. Why Diet and Exercise Fail takes a different tack, drawing on new medical research that has not hit the popular press. It deserves a read.

In this book, Daniel Korn explores how some relatively minor changes in the American diet over the past 40 or 50 years may have inadvertently triggered the recent catastrophic increase in obesity. In a sense, the foundation of this book is good detective work, in that the author examines various popular diet theories and explains their flaws before reaching his own conclusions. Although this book is concise, it is very well written and extensively footnoted, giving the reader a starting point from which to do additional research, if so inclined. If you've tried all the popular diets and still struggle with weight loss, this book could offer an alternative path that is both simple and effective. In addition, the suggestions that are made with respect to caffeine intake and the selection of fats are very healthy, relatively easy to implement and SAFE. This book is a good investment in your health.

This well-researched and well-written book is thought provoking in that it debunks most common 'easy answers' to weight loss. Many mainstream theories are too simplistic--too much fat, too many carbs, sedentary lifestyles, etc. If there were an easy answer such as those presented, and discredited, in this book, the American population wouldn't be getting fatter. While I didn't agree with one of Mr. Korn's alternate hypotheses explaining our growing weight problem, I did find merit in the other regarding the declining nutritional quality of our food. If that is so, and there is a growing body of evidence that it is, there is a solution. It's a complex view but easily tested on a personal level by a thoughtful and committed individual. Changing our culture would not be easy, maybe impossible, but changing yourself and what you put in your mouth isn't.

This is not a diet book, but looks at the issue conceptually and offers good food for thought. For someone looking at a bigger picture and interested in increasing understanding of the many factors involved, this book has value.

I have read over 100 diet and nutrition books in my personal winning battle with weight gain. This one is simple, short, and powerful. First the author examines all the false assumptions about what causes obesity. From the common belief that the consumption of fat causes us to be fat, which the French and the Intuit Eskimos showed to be completely false in reality in their cultural diet. To the modern craze of refined carbohydrates being the cause of weight gain, which the lean people who eat the Thai diet of mainly rice proved incorrect. He also debunks the theory of lowering calorie intake that does not take into account the digestion, hormones, fiber, and the complexity of metabolism of the human body.
Weight gain is caused by over eating, stress, sleep deprivation, and lack of healthy Omega three fat in the modern American diet. When the body is under stress it creates the hormone cortisol which increases blood pressure and blood sugar. After the stressful situation has passed we usually want to eat. What over looked item in our diets could cause cortisol to be released, sleep pattern disturbance, and hunger? Caffeine is the main suspect that has been so over looked and even thought to be a diet aid. The authors theory is that due to some people's genetic tolerance for caffeine it has been over looked as the missing element of weight gain in the Western Diet. The author also makes excellent points about how the modern diet is so deficient in healthy Omega-3 fats with Omega-6 fats being out of balance. He sees a cycle where lack of Omega 3's causes poor quality of sleep leading to the need for caffeine. I can say that I was at my best weight of my life when I quit consuming caffeine altogether. Read the book "Caffeine Blues" for a deep dive into the negative effects of caffeine on the body. I really liked this new theory on weight loss and plan to do my own experiment.