Gene Eating: the Science of Obesity and the Truth about Diets


By Dr. Giles Yeo (2018)

This is a thoroughly useful book, describing what we currently know about how genes influence obesity.  It also makes it quite clear that we still need to know a lot more but, as far as it goes, it is very handy to know where we're at at the moment, at the very least so that we don't continue to make bad dietary choices.  And making a mess of dietary choices we clearly do!  Giles does his best to sort the wheat from the chaff with the best arguments and explanations to date: various cleanses, the GOOP madness, gluten free diets and many others come under the spot light and shrivel under the scrutiny.

The only quibble: the tone is somehow a bit wobbly, as if English isn't actually the author's first language, or as if he would far rather be writing a scientific paper and dumbing down is desperately counter-intuitive.  However, the effect is endearing rather than annoying and certainly doesn't detract from the "must read" nature of this book.

Rating: 9/10

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