A biochemist shows how we can finally control our fat—by understanding how it works. Fat is not just excess weight, but actually a dynamic, smart, and self-sustaining organ that influences everything from aging and immunity to mood and fertility. With cutting-edge research and riveting case studies—including the story of a girl who had no fat, and that of a young woman who couldn’t stop eating—Dr. Sylvia Tara reveals the surprising science behind our most misunderstood body part and its incredible ability to defend itself. Exploring the unexpected ways viruses, hormones, sleep, and genetics impact fat, Tara uncovers the true secret to losing weight: working with your fat, not against it.

The International Bestseller, as featured in The Times Fat is a vital yet hugely under-rated organ. Fat has become a dirty word, but we know so little about how it really works. In Fat, expert doctors and obesity researchers Dr Mari?tte Boon and Professor Liesbeth van Rossum present the ground-breaking research which explodes many of the myths and prejudices surrounding body fat and will make us completely rethink our relationship with it. Making use of the cutting-edge research in this specialist field, this fascinating and entertaining book will explain how fat generates important hormones, communicates with our brains and is, indeed, essential for staying alive. Informative yet accessible, Fat: The Secret Organ is important reading, not only for people who have struggled with their weight, but for everybody who is serious about their health.

Summary, Analysis & Review of Sylvia Tara’s The Secret Life of Fat by Instaread Preview: The Secret Life of Fat: The Science Behind the Body’s Least Understood Organ and What It Means for You is a thorough summary and synthesis of recent research surrounding the science of human fat. Author Sylvia Tara explores the many intricacies of fat including its composition, its functions as a bodily organ, and its seemingly indomitable ability to persist and grow in the human body. Tara examines fat from three different angles including an overview of how the scientific conceptualization of fat has changed over time. Slowly, researchers have come to realize that fat is more than just a way for the body to store energy; it is also integral to complex processes and structures, such as hormone regulation, cell building and maintenance, organ protection, and the immune system. It even plays an important role in the body’s communications system by sending messages to both the brain and the metabolic systems… PLEASE NOTE: This is a Summary, Analysis & Review of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Summary, Analysis & Review of Sylvia Tara’s The Secret Life of Fat by Instaread: · Overview of the Book · Important People · Key Takeaways · Analysis of Key Takeaways About the Author With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience. Visit our website at instaread.co.

We live in a world where there is a new fad diet, superfood, supplement or nutrition theory every month. There are so many tricks to optimizing workouts, peak performance, burning fat, living longer, sleeping better and biohacking your immune system. Wellness has become a part of mainstream discourse like never before, and the result is an overwhelming barrage of seemingly contradictory information. But here's one simple truth: good health impacts every aspect of life, be it productivity at work, interpersonal relationships or a balanced family life. In Hacking Health, Mukesh Bansal takes on the mammoth task of demystifying the science, simplifying the research and tracing the story of our relationship with our body. Through a combination of personal experience and cutting-edge science, this is a book that draws from ancient wisdom and also debunks unscientific myths to help you make smart choices in pursuit of good health. From nutrition and fitness to sleep and immunity, weight management and mental health to ageing and longevity, this book delves into the breadth and depth of holistic health and helps you navigate the lines between science and pseudoscience. Can we use science to hack the human body's functioning and be our most efficient, fittest and happiest selves? Hacking Health takes a 360-degree approach to answer this very question and help you unlock your body's potential.

During the early 1990s, the diet drugs fen-phen and Redux achieved tremendous popularity. The chemical combination was discovered by chance, marketed with hyperbole, and prescribed to millions. But as the drugs' developer, pharmaceutical giant American Home Products, cashed in on the miracle weight-loss pills, medical researchers revealed that the drugs caused heart valve disease. This scandal was, incredibly, only the beginning of an unbelievable saga of greed. In Fat Chance, Rick Christman recounts a story that a judicial tribunal later described as "a tale worthy of the pen of Charles Dickens." Bill Gallion, Shirley Cunningham, and Melbourne Mills contrived to bring a class-action lawsuit against American Home Products in Covington, Kentucky. Their hired trial consultant, Mark Modlin, had a bizarre relationship with the presiding judge, Jay Bamberger of Covington, who was once honored as the Kentucky Bar Association's "Judge of the Year." Soon after, Stan Chesley, arguably the most successful trial attorney in the United States, joined the class-action suit. Ultimately, their efforts were rewarded with $200 million for the 431 plaintiffs, and the four lawyers immediately began to plunder their clients' money. When the fraud was discovered, two of the attorneys received long prison sentences and another was acquitted after claiming an alcoholism defense. All four were permanently banished from the practice of law and Judge Bamberger was disbarred and disrobed. Recounting a dramatic affair that bears conspicuous similarities to opioid-related class-action litigation against the pharmaceutical industry, Christman offers an engaging, if occasionally horrifying, account of one of America's most prominent product liability cases and the settlement's aftermath.

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AS SEEN ON NETFLIX’S HACK YOUR HEALTH: THE SECRETS OF YOUR GUT “Everything you ever wanted to know about the gut (and then some).” —SELF Discover the secrets of your digestive system—and how to hone a healthy gut—plus new research on the mind-gut connection. With quirky charm, science star and medical doctor Giulia Enders explains the gut’s magic, answering questions like: What’s really up with gluten and lactose intolerance? How does the gut affect obesity? What's the connection between our microbiome and mental health? Why does acid reflux happen? In this revised edition of her beloved bestseller, Enders includes a new section on the brain-gut connection, and dives into groundbreaking discoveries of psychobiotics—microbes with psychological effects that can influence mental health conditions like depression and even stress. For too long, the gut has been the body’s most ignored and least appreciated organ. But it does more than just dirty work; it’s at the core of who we are, and this beguiling book will make you finally listen to those butterflies in your stomach: they’re trying to tell you something important.

Winner, 2020 Body and Embodiment Best Publication Award, given by the American Sociological Association Honorable Mention, 2020 Sociology of Sex and Gender Distinguished Book Award, given by the American Sociological Association How the female body has been racialized for over two hundred years There is an obesity epidemic in this country and poor Black women are particularly stigmatized as “diseased” and a burden on the public health care system. This is only the most recent incarnation of the fear of fat Black women, which Sabrina Strings shows took root more than two hundred years ago. Strings weaves together an eye-opening historical narrative ranging from the Renaissance to the current moment, analyzing important works of art, newspaper and magazine articles, and scientific literature and medical journals—where fat bodies were once praised—showing that fat phobia, as it relates to Black women, did not originate with medical findings, but with the Enlightenment era belief that fatness was evidence of “savagery” and racial inferiority. The author argues that the contemporary ideal of slenderness is, at its very core, racialized and racist. Indeed, it was not until the early twentieth century, when racialized attitudes against fatness were already entrenched in the culture, that the medical establishment began its crusade against obesity. An important and original work, Fearing the Black Body argues convincingly that fat phobia isn’t about health at all, but rather a means of using the body to validate race, class, and gender prejudice.

If exercise is healthy (so good for you!), why do many people dislike or avoid it? These engaging stories and explanations will revolutionize the way you think about exercising—not to mention sitting, sleeping, sprinting, weight lifting, playing, fighting, walking, jogging, and even dancing. “Strikes a perfect balance of scholarship, wit, and enthusiasm.” —Bill Bryson, New York Times best-selling author of The Body • If we are born to walk and run, why do most of us take it easy whenever possible? • Does running ruin your knees? • Should we do weights, cardio, or high-intensity training? • Is sitting really the new smoking? • Can you lose weight by walking? • And how do we make sense of the conflicting, anxiety-inducing information about rest, physical activity, and exercise with which we are bombarded? In this myth-busting book, Daniel Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and a pioneering researcher on the evolution of human physical activity, tells the story of how we never evolved to exercise—to do voluntary physical activity for the sake of health. Using his own research and experiences throughout the world, Lieberman recounts without jargon how and why humans evolved to walk, run, dig, and do other necessary and rewarding physical activities while avoiding needless exertion. Exercised is entertaining and enlightening but also constructive. As our increasingly sedentary lifestyles have contributed to skyrocketing rates of obesity and diseases such as diabetes, Lieberman audaciously argues that to become more active we need to do more than medicalize and commodify exercise. Drawing on insights from evolutionary biology and anthropology, Lieberman suggests how we can make exercise more enjoyable, rather than shaming and blaming people for avoiding it. He also tackles the question of whether you can exercise too much, even as he explains why exercise can reduce our vulnerability to the diseases mostly likely to make us sick and kill us.

When you walk through any grocery store, there are all types of food nicely packaged and ready to take home and eat. When you need a quick meal, you may stop into a fast food restaurant and grab something delicious and fried. These quick, easy foods are often less expensive and easily accessible. However, many of these foods are heavily processed and full of preservatives and other chemicals. They are cheap to make and last a long time. In this engrossing book, readers will learn where these foods come from and the health consequences of a diet high in processed foods.