For many decades the debate about choosing to consume low versus high carb and whether to eat fat, has instigated tense debate amongst health and medical professionals regarding its consequences for human health.

Professor Feinman is a respected biochemist who has greatly contributed to the field of nutritional science for several decades. He has pioneered seminal work in the area of low carb research. Feinman is more than qualified to share with the reader his experiences and vast knowledge in this field.

His motives for writing this book are multifaceted, including educating readers about diabetes and the preferred choice of treating this disease with the implementation of a low carb diet. Feinman defines foundational terminology and explains how to correctly interpret statistics in medical literature. Feinman encourages the reader to “connect the dots” and see how the poor nutritional advice given by government agencies and other medical organisations are in cooperation with Big Pharma to dispense harmful drugs in lieu of sensible and honest nutritional advice to treat conditions such as diabetes.

The main premise of Feinman’s book is a discourse on metabolic syndrome and to help dispel the incorrect and harmful myths regarding consuming a low carb diet and fat through the lens of biochemistry. He also examines in a couple of chapters evidence disseminated, regarding research of consuming other foods such as eggs and meat that are evidently flawed. He exhorts the reader to use common sense when faced with such information.

Feinman makes it clear in his book that he is dismayed by the dishonesty and greed of the respective parties who deliberately collude to manipulate research data and its interpretation for monetary and political gain.

Nutrition in Crisis is a highly engaging, intelligently written and informative book. Feinman takes the reader on an interesting journey with his thoroughly researched and well explained discourse on the various nutritional science controversies. However, this book may not appeal to the average reader, as it is fashioned for individuals who are more inclined to read nutritional science content.

Feinman proposes that there needs to be a dramatic shift for the current standard accepted in the nutrition science field. Including resolving health issues such as treatment of cancer in a rational manner going forward. Feinman has clearly stated that his book is intended to assist the reader to have the knowledge to make their own decisions, regarding nutrition and take control of their own health.

Feinman’s nuanced book is a great resource for medical nutrition students. It is written in an intelligent, easy to comprehend format.

Nutrition in Crisis is a must read book to help individuals understand how to correctly evaluate medical literature. Feinman’s book is an exciting read with his original thoughts and analysis of biochemistry and nutritional science studies.


This review was published on ph-tribune.com

This is a good overview of both the reasons for a low carb diet and how to evaluate nutritional studies.
The author seems to be a bit biased. He rarely questions the low carb diet and doesn't seem open to alternative hypothesis. I am not saying that he's wrong. I agree with him on almost every point he makes if not every one, but I'd prefer a more open author. He also makes a couple sloppy arguments. The only one I remember is that he says that it is a good idea to eat red meat as people need protein. Red meat is high in heme iron and methionine two things that decrease longevity. Given that in a study he cites there was a small increase in mortality with red meat for men I see no benefit to getting my protein from chicken, fish, eggs, nuts or beans. He might dislike the carb content in the latter two but it was kind of hard to tell exactly how much carbs he expected. Lacking questions like these was the biggest problem I had with the book. I'd like him to address counter claims like low carb diets increasing cortisol and how dietary fiber fits in here. All that being said, the book was very good in that it really hammered in a couple of important points. For example, the fact that input amounts rarely matter in biochemistry deserves a book of its own. This book makes clear how the body has many ways ensure that under most inputs the outputs remain in a target range.

This book is similar in style to Gary Taubes' book Why We Get Fat, although it is not as well written. This book would be best for medical professionals who want an inside look at where nutrition research comes from and how it then affects nutrition policy. This book is too dense for average lay person in my opinion. I am a wholistic nutrition professional and heard most of this information before. I agree with it, but have found better written books on the subject that would appeal to an average reader.

This was a very difficult book to get through. Heavy with scientific language and not enough examples of the ideas presented. I was interested in the question he posed about how to tell which nutritional facts were true since it seems there are many contrasting ideas on what good to eat. I don't think the author tackled that question fully. If you can appreciate a more scientific approach to nutrition this is a book for you. Just not my cup of tea.
Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.