Reading burns calories: Toxic Fat by Barry Sears

The title of this book is so over-the-top that I decided I had to read it when I was offered a copy to review. Toxic Fat: When Good Fat Turns Bad sounds like the title of a B-grade horror movie and the cover is loud enough that I could hold it up in the street and stop traffic. The book is written by Barry Sears, who is probably most famous for creating The Zone Diet.

In the book, Sears says the recent rise in obesity is due to three things: increased consumption of cheap carbohydrates (like chips and cookies) which increase insulin resistance, increased use of cheap vegetable oils high in omega-6 fatty acids, and decreased consumption of omega-3 acids typically found in fish oil. He says this leads to an increased level of arachidonic acid (a fatty acid and the “toxic fat” mentioned in the title) which causes inflammation of organs which in turn increases the risk of cancer, type-2 Diabetes, heart disease, neurological disorders and other nasty stuff you don’t want to have [...]

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