Men's Health writer O'Connell (LL Cool J's Platinum Workout) delivers a
smart, personally inspired health wakeup call in no uncertain terms: our
excessive consumption of carbohydrates is killing us and wrecking our
health-care system. Diabetes has reached "global pandemic" proportions,
he argues, especially among youth; and while this "invisible disease"
has been studied intensively since the role of insulin in regulating the
body's sugar was understood by the 1920s (type 1 diabetes means the
pancreas can no longer produce insulin, while type 2, the most prevalent
today, means the body makes too much and systems begin failing), the
message that the latter is entirely preventable due to a closely watched
low-carb, high-protein diet has been obscured and downright denied.
After witnessing the slow, agonizing death of his father from diabetes,
O'Connell, too, got the "tap on the shoulder" when he was diagnosed with
prediabetes and subsequently informed himself on how to radically alter
his diet and lifestyle. What he learned, mystifyingly, was that most
official organizations, like the American Diabetes Association (ADA),
and doctors still prescribe a low-fat, high-carb diet and a host of
drugs with perilous side effects. In his well-researched, reasoned work,
O'Connell flips this myth and offers sage, usable advice in choosing
foods, exercising, and challenging this stealthy killer. (Aug.)
Copyright 2011 Reed Business Information. -- Publishers Weekly
