Why Women Need Fat

In this revolutionary book, authors Dr. Will Lassek and Dr. Steven Gaulin combine their expertise in public health and anthropology, with groundbreaking research to definitively answer yes. Blending the latest scientific evidence from around the world in anthropology, nutrition, and public health, they demonstrate how women’s patterns of weight gain and loss are shaped by evolution. By examining how a women’s weight fluctuates over her lifetime (particularly during the childbearing years), this book slams the door on our cultural ideal of thinness, explaining why it’s biologically impossible for every woman to be thin. Drawing on research from evolutionary biology, psychology, and medicine, the authors argue that our bodies want—and in fact, need—certain fats to produce smart and healthy children. Debunking myths and challenging cultural beliefs about women and weight, WHY WOMEN NEED FAT [Hudson Street Press; January 2012; ISBN: 978-1-59463-085-9] explains not only how women have gotten bigger, but also shares prescriptive advice on how every woman can return to her natural genetically-determined, healthy weight.

With accessible explanation of how the foods intended to make us healthier actually made us less so to why women’s bodies refuse to shed those last five pounds, this counterintuitive and fascinating book will shift how we look at women’s weight in America. In WHY WOMEN NEED FAT, Dr. Will Lassek and Dr. Steven Gaulin reveal surprising discoveries from their own research that explain why and how our bodies manage weight based on diet, evolution and genetics.

It includes findings on:

● Why women need fat (It feeds our baby’s brains)

● How American women gained so much weight over the past four decades

● How eating the right kinds of fat help women lose weight

● Why all women start to struggle with their weight when they turn 30

● Why diets don’t work but eating a variety of fresh, natural food melts away fat

● How “low-fat” food makes us gain weight

● Why cutting 50 calories a day helps to “trick” your body into consistent weight loss

Why Women Need Fat not only gives women the tools they need to shed weight, but also a better understanding of why those last 5 pounds seem impossible to lose.