Food provides the raw material required for life. Yet most of us don''t have a clue about how our bodies use it. How do we get energy from our food while at the same time extracting the physical materials we need to make and maintain our bodies? How does the food we eat affect the way our bodies function? What''s distinct about the way we metabolise highly-processed food? Food and nutrition are overrun by myth and pseudoscience. The reality is that millions of years of evolution have structured human physiology so that it is macronutrient agnostic. Protein, carbohydrate: the body has evolved so that it extracts the same amount of energy from each, and retains the same amount of fat. There are countless theories about the efficacy and health benefits of certain macronutrients - proteins versus carbs versus fat... but biology simply doesn''t work that way. The problem is that while diet gurus are busy prescribing what to eat, they haven''t bothered to explain why we eat in the first place. Why We Eat is a definitive look at the science of food and metabolism. It will explain why we''re hungry at particular moments in our days and our lives, why diets almost never work, why exercise doesn''t benefit you in the ways you probably think it does, and how ultra-processed food fools and alters our metabolisms.

Autorentext
Kevin Hall, PhD, is an internationally recognised expert in human nutrition, metabolism, obesity and neuroscience. Despite being a physicist by training, Hall has led groundbreaking clinical research investigating how our food environment shapes our diet and how our diet affects the physiology of our bodies and our brains. Hall has twice received the Director's Award from the US National Institutes of Health and has also received the E.V. McCullum Award from the American Society for Nutrition, the Lilly Scientific Achievement Award from The Obesity Society and the Guyton Award for Excellence in Integrative Physiology from the American Physiological Society. Julia Belluz is a journalist and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She has reported extensively on medicine, nutrition and global public health from Canada, the US and Europe. Previously, Belluz was Vox's senior health correspondent in Washington, D.C., and a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. A Canadian, she holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science and lives with her family in Paris, France.

Klappentext
'This is not just one of the best science books I have read, but one of the best books full stop' - Chris van Tulleken, author of the Sunday Times bestseller ULTRA-PROCESSED PEOPLE

'Junk-food giants hijack your biology. Wellness hucksters sell you false hope. In a food environment rigged against you, this is your guide to fighting back.' Henry Dimbleby*,* author of the Sunday Times bestseller RAVENOUS, and architect of the UK's National Food Strategy*.*

'A must-read . . . written with great expertise' - David Kessler, author of the New York Times bestseller DIET, DRUGS, AND DOPAMINE

'If you are going to read one book about nutrition and health, then make it this one' - Deborah Blum, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of THE POISON SQUAD

Nutrition isn't rocket science; it's harder.

There are new diet fads, bold claims about superfoods and articles promising the secrets to lasting weight loss and longevity. The more 'expert' advice we hear about diet, the less clarity we have about what to eat.

In Food Intelligence, award-winning health journalist, Julia Belluz, and internationally renowned nutrition and metabolism scientist, Kevin Hall, cut through the myths about nutrition to deliver a comprehensive book on food, diet, metabolism and healthy eating.

Breaking food down into its constituent parts, they reveal the science behind how protein, fat, carbs and vitamins impact our bodies. They shine a light on the wonders of metabolism and debunk the latest 'theories' about blood sugar monitors and ultra-processed foods. They reveal the ways that the world around us - our food environment - shapes our eating behaviours and the food choices we make every day. Diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes are not a result of a failure of willpower; they are consequences of food systems working as designed.

Humane and deeply reported, this journey into the science of what we eat will equip you with the food intelligence you need to better understand what's on your dinner plate, how it got there and why you eat it.