The case against sugar

This was a great overview of the history of research into sugar's effects on our diet as well as an explanation of the various mechanisms by which glucose and fructose specifically cause an array of diseases. It wasn't really mind-blowing, at least to me, but there were a lot of ethical and dietary issues I didn't know about that have sort of left me on-and-off disgusted by sweets for the past week.

Despite the information being good (with a gigantic pile of citations, notes, and indices in the back of the book), this was a pretty rough read. It's incredibly dry, it's questionably organized, it's oddly repetitive with quotes showing up multiple times, and there's a whole chapter on cigarettes that really feels out of place. On top of all that, the first chapter is basically a summary of the rest of the book but goes into enough detail that you leave yourself wondering how much of the rest was really necessary.

Regardless, it is good to know more about historical issues with nutrition research and the parts on various indigenous diets and how they changed when "westernized" were especially interesting to me. And the second-last chapter about the mechanisms by which insulin causes additional dietary issues is pretty damning on the whole.

Basically, I would recommend people somehow learn all this information, but this book is maybe not the best way to present it.