Review and summary: The Fatburn Fix, by Dr. Cate Shannahan

The Fatburn Fix: Review

America is in an obesity crisis.

A $71 billion dollar industry throws diet scheme after diet scheme at us. But the population just gets fatter.

Dr. Cate Shannahan has a different take on the traditional eat-less-and-exercise-more plan that fails people over and over:

And while it may seem as if they each have different problems, the reality is their stories are all rooted in the same common soil: they’ve lost their ability to burn body fat for fuel.

The Fatburn Fix details how break out of the traditional diet trap.

As we overconsume sugar and vegetable oils, our bodies shift to burning sugar for energy instead of stored fat:

We’re supposed to be able to use our body fat for energy between meals. That’s why we have body fat! We’re not supposed to need regular snacks—or even regular meals.
[…]

your body fat is full of the unusual fatty acids in vegetable oils, those unusual fatty acids in your body fat slowly but surely damage your cells. In an attempt to slow the damage, your metabolism slowly but surely makes a seismic shift from relying mostly on body fat for energy between meals to relying mostly on sugar for energy between meals.

Shannahan also has a unique take on Type 2 diabetes and its effect on our health:

Type 2 diabetes is not just a problem of high blood sugar, as we commonly believe. It’s a disease that develops as your body loses its ability to use fat for fuel.

The Fatburn Fix lays out the case for ditching sugar to restore your body’s ability to burn fat for fuel. And it provides the roadmap to get there.