Nutrition in Crisis: Flawed Studies, Misleading Advice, and the Real Science of Human Metabolism

by Richard David Feinman

Almost every day it seems a new study is published that shows you are at risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or death due to something you’ve just eaten for lunch. Many of us no longer know what to eat or who to believe. In Nutrition in Crisis distinguished biochemist Richard Feinman, PhD, cuts through the noise, explaining the intricacies of nutrition and human metabolism in accessible terms. He lays out the tools you need to navigate the current confusion in medical literature and its increasingly bizarre reflection in the media. At the same time, Nutrition in Crisis offers an unsparing critique of the nutritional establishment, which continues to demonize fat and refute the benefits of low-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets―all despite decades of evidence to the contrary. Feinman tells the story of the first low-carbohydrate revolution fifteen years ago, how it began, what killed it, and why a second revolution is now reaching a fever pitch. He exposes the backhanded tactics of a regressive nutritional establishment that ignores good data and common sense, and highlights the innovative work of those researchers who have broken rank. Entertaining, informative, and irreverent, Feinman paints a broad picture of the nutrition the beauty of the underlying biochemistry; the embarrassing failures of the medical establishment; the preeminence of low-carbohydrate diets for weight loss, diabetes, other metabolic diseases, and even cancer; and what’s wrong with the constant reports that the foods we’ve been eating for centuries represent a threat rather than a source of pleasure.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Nutrition, Bodies, Science

304 pages, Paperback

Published March 26, 2019

Reviews

[Jamie Fuller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nutrition in Crisis is written by a biochemist and it shows. While I think much of the information he's trying to present is important, the formatting, setup, and writing style did not work for me at all. 

The "advance summary" of his points that he started with felt all over the place despite ostensibly having clear framing. More aggravatingly, his "rules," while not wrong per se, made the nutritionist in me want to throw the book across the room. Example: "Rule #2: If you want to lose weight, don't eat. If you have to eat, don't eat carbs." 

Technically, his underlying points are valid: you can lose weight if you starve yourself, and certainly eating a low-carb diet is proven to help weight loss in most cases. But in isolation, those bits of advice are just as likely to cause harm as do any good... which pretty much sums up my feeling about everything I read. It's not that the author doesn't know his science, it's just that his presentation of it is problematic. 

I also felt like he never quite got his writing "voice" ironed out. Sentences and paragraphs seemed to move back and forth between professional academic scientist and snarky, flippant commentator, with no cohesion between them. The information he attempts to provide is important, but I will continue to point interested parties towards other,better-organized sources rather than recommend this one.

[Jess Macallan · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF
I started with high hopes for this book. I appreciate the author's viewpoint on nutrition and his encouragement to question nutrition science. He offered a solid argument for an LCHF diet using nutritional biochemistry. However, he lost me as a reader when he disparaged nutritionists at multiple points throughout the first quarter of the book.

Given that he is so heavily focused on science, he should have done his research and not lumped all nutrition professionals into the same category of "nutritionist." Some of us are trained with a functional focus (the opposite of what the AND promotes) and know better than to make gross simplifications or generalizations when it comes to nutrition science and dietary dogma. I can't say the same for this author.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Provocative page-turner

There is a rumbling and growing community of people who now accept that our nutrition knowledge has been intentionally manipulated to promote the diet- heart hypothesis. Doctors, somewhat cloned during med school and specialty training, are slow to accept their need for critical analysis skills to free them from blinkered adherence to long standing compromised nutrition dogma. This book should be a necessary read for all medical doctors. Every chapter is clear, understandable, and insightfully provocative.

[Michelle-Ashley Ellerington · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not what i expected.

[Malcolm Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting take on inconclusive studies with modest significance boosted to population wide recommendations needed to save a few lives, if any.