Metabolical

The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine

By: Robert H. Lustig

Narrated by: Charles Constant

The New York Times bestselling author of Fat Chance explains the eight pathologies that underlie all chronic disease, documents how processed food has impacted them to ruin our health, economy, and environment over the past 50 years, and proposes an urgent manifesto and strategy to cure both us and the planet.

Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric neuroendocrinologist who has long been on the cutting edge of medicine and science, challenges our current healthcare paradigm which has gone off the rails under the influence of Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Government.

You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know what the problem is. One of Lustig’s singular gifts as a communicator is his ability to “connect the dots” for the general reader, in order to unpack the scientific data and concepts behind his arguments, as he tells the “real story of food” and “the story of real food.”

Metabolical weaves the interconnected strands of nutrition, health/disease, medicine, environment, and society into a completely new fabric by proving on a scientific basis a series of iconoclastic revelations, among them:

• Medicine for chronic disease treats symptoms, not the disease itself
• You can diagnose your own biochemical profile
• Chronic diseases are not "druggable," but they are "foodable"
• Processed food isn’t just toxic, it’s addictive
• The war between vegan and keto is a false war—the combatants are on the same side
• Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Government are on the other side

Making the case that food is the only lever we have to effect biochemical change to improve our health, Lustig explains what to eat based on two novel criteria: protect the liver, and feed the gut. He insists that if we do not fix our food and change the way we eat, we will continue to court chronic disease, bankrupt healthcare, and threaten the planet. But there is hope: this book explains what’s needed to fix all three.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Open your eyes to processed food

This was full of eye opening information about the processed food industry and how money is driving the obesity epidemic. A must read for anyone wishing to live a long healthy life and pass this to their kids!

Very informative!

What a fascinating book! The author does a great job laying out the science behind our ever increasing sickness as a society and does so in a way that is easy to understand. We need to wake up and realize that the food and pharmaceutical companies are behind so many avoidable diseases. I always suspected that our diet was a big part of why so many of us struggle with weight gain, behavioral issues, and fatigue to name a few. This book confirmed my suspicions and opened my eyes to just how screwed up our food system is but it also lays out ways to combat the food industry and increase our health. If as a society we can embrace these principles everyone but the companies who don’t care about our overall health stands to profit.

Government Won't Kill Us, It Just Let's Us Die... Chapter 24

This book serves as confirmation that huge amounts of money from the food industry and pharmaceutical companies limits, or rather dictates, what the FDA & USDA will do or say about the efficacy and safety of drugs and processed "food." And, the doctor reconfirms that the Medical Industry profits more from the "sickness" business rather than wellness and prevention. It is up to each individual to take care of their own health and well-being. This may not come as a surprise to you, but the combination of population increase, obesity, and lack of physical activity creates a global strain on so-called "healthcare." This "sickness" industry - one of the top 5 fastest-growing businesses in America is fueled by processed foods, which creates a diabolical metabolism in most Americans. The basic message is simple EAT REAL FOOD and your chances are greatly improved that you won't become part of the sickness industry... Eat well and be well.

Very informative but a bit long

While I enjoyed the content and the subject matter expertise, I found the book to sometimes belabor points and was hoping to find more practical solutions.

A MUST listen to book

Such a good and educational book outlining the benefits of real food and how processed foods - not food at all- is killing us! Again- a MUST read!!