Auckland University Press 2016
Science tells us that our own efforts – following diets, heading to the gym or taking some new pills – are defeated again and again by our genes. Drawing on the latest research and twenty years of working with overweight patients, this short and punchy book dispels myths and tells the tough truths about our obesity epidemic. Does dieting work? (No.) Is exercise the answer? (No.) Can we change our genes? (Unfortunately not.) How about pills and surgery? (Sometimes, but we can’t operate on everyone.) Why are the rich thinner than the poor? (You’ll find out.). Toomath shows how our modern world is making us fat. And while governments and individuals keep trying things that science shows do not work – from dieting to education campaigns – she outlines what just might make a difference in ending the obesity epidemic. A thousand books will tell you how to get thin. It looks like they haven’t worked. We just keep getting fatter. Fat Science – a small book about one of our biggest problems – can change that...