Publishers Weekly
★ 05/17/2021
Pediatric endocrinologist Lustig (Fat Chance) serves up an eye-opening survey to explain why processed food is killing people. Forty years of medical practice convinced Lustig that the problem was not what’s in food, but what’s been done to food: processed foods (largely thanks to added sugars), he writes, are “a toxic and addictive consumable poison” that have increased rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, depression, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. A return to “real food,” he writes, can improve lives, ease health-care costs, and save the planet. Lustig decries modern medicine’s method of treating symptoms instead of addressing diet and, on the personal level, proposes a solution for healthy eating that involves protecting the liver and tending to the gut. Lustig crisply condemns Big Pharma and the food industry, and is indisputably thorough on the science, drilling down to the eight cellular pathologies behind metabolic syndrome. Lustig’s case that readers treat sugar like an addictive substance is strong, and candid asides on such topics as how to interpret one’s lab test results keep things moving along. This indictment of the food industry lands as a must-read guide to a healthier world. Agent: Janis A. Donnaud, Janis A. Donnaud & Assoc. (May)
From the Publisher
The authoritative, no-hold-barred analysis of what food does for health, versus what the food industry does for disease.” — Mark Bittman, food writer and author of Animal, Vegetable, Junk
“We’re not just eating ourselves to death, we’re eating the planet to death. Metabolical explains why, and why we’ve been so impotent at dealing with both.” — Katie Couric, journalist
“Metabolical lays bare the depth of the relationship between the recent and profound perversion of the human diet and its overwhelming health consequences...Manufactured food is killing humanity. And real food, as Lustig makes clear, is the only right choice for our health, our food supply, our wallets, and our planet.” — David Perlmutter, MD, Fellow, American College of Nutrition, Author, #1 New York Times bestseller of Grain Brain and Brain Wash
"Rob Lustig does it again...Metabolical is an eye-opener about our modern food environment, health-care system, and the dire straits the next generation is headed in if we don't make some serious systemic changes in the way we think about nutrition. " — Nicole Avena, PhD, author of What to Eat When You Want to Get Pregnant
“A modern Copernicus, Dr. Robert Lustig has provided both the expertise to recognize the charade of processed food and the courage to tell the truth.” — Dale E. Bredesen, MD, professor and author of the New York Times bestseller, The End of Alzheimer’s
“A beautifully written exposé of a broken system that begs to be repaired.” — Kelly D. Brownell, PhD, Director, World Food Policy Center and Dean Emeritus, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
“Metabolical shows that not all calories are created equal, an insight that if acted upon could save countless lives.” — Robert N. Proctor, PhD, Professor of the History of Science, Stanford University, and author of Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition.
"Metabolical offers a meticulous analysis of current science on nutrition and health; and an indictment of processed food, the food industry, and the actors who conspire to keep our food unhealthy." — Emily M. Broad Leib, JD, Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Food Law and Policy Clinic, Harvard Law School
“This book will open your eyes to a powerful food industry that is failing in its core task.” — Jeffrey D. Sachs, PhD, University Professor at Columbia University President of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network
“Robert Lustig has treated the casualties, and now he’s going after the perpetrators.” — Raj Patel, PhD, social activist and author of Stuffed and Starved, History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, and Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice.
Emily M. Broad Leib
"Metabolical offers a meticulous analysis of current science on nutrition and health; and an indictment of processed food, the food industry, and the actors who conspire to keep our food unhealthy."
Nicole Avena
"Rob Lustig does it again...Metabolical is an eye-opener about our modern food environment, health-care system, and the dire straits the next generation is headed in if we don't make some serious systemic changes in the way we think about nutrition. "
Jeffrey D. Sachs
This book will open your eyes to a powerful food industry that is failing in its core task.
David Perlmutter
Metabolical lays bare the depth of the relationship between the recent and profound perversion of the human diet and its overwhelming health consequences...Manufactured food is killing humanity. And real food, as Lustig makes clear, is the only right choice for our health, our food supply, our wallets, and our planet.
Dale E. Bredesen
A modern Copernicus, Dr. Robert Lustig has provided both the expertise to recognize the charade of processed food and the courage to tell the truth.
Robert N. Proctor
“Metabolical shows that not all calories are created equal, an insight that if acted upon could save countless lives.”
Katie Couric
We’re not just eating ourselves to death, we’re eating the planet to death. Metabolical explains why, and why we’ve been so impotent at dealing with both.
Raj Patel
Robert Lustig has treated the casualties, and now he’s going after the perpetrators.
Mark Bittman
The authoritative, no-hold-barred analysis of what food does for health, versus what the food industry does for disease.
Kelly D. Brownell
A beautifully written exposé of a broken system that begs to be repaired.”
