The Case Against Sugar

From the best-selling author of Why We Get Fat, a groundbreaking, eye-opening exposé that makes the convincing case that sugar is the tobacco of the new millennium: backed by powerful lobbies, entrenched in our lives, and making us very sick. 

Among Americans, diabetes is more prevalent today than ever; obesity is at epidemic proportions; nearly 10% of children are thought to have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. And sugar is at the root of these, and other, critical society-wide, health-related problems. With his signature command of both science and straight talk, Gary Taubes delves into Americans' history with sugar: its uses as a preservative, as an additive in cigarettes, the contemporary overuse of high-fructose corn syrup. He explains what research has shown about our addiction to sweets. He clarifies the arguments against sugar, corrects misconceptions about the relationship between sugar and weight loss; and provides the perspective necessary to make informed decisions about sugar as individuals and as a society.

Published on: 2016-12-27

Released on: 2016-12-27

Format: Deckle Edge

Original language: English

Dimensions: 8.67" h x 1.30" w x 5.91" l, .99 pounds

Binding: Hardcover

384 pages

Review 

"Taubes’s writing is both inflammatory and copiously researched. It is also well timed... Hard-charging (and I’ll add game-changing)." - Dan Barber, The New York Times

"A blitz of a book... Mr. Taubes’s argument is so persuasive that, after reading The Case Against Sugar, this functioning chocoholic cut out the Snacking Bark and stopped eating cakes and white bread... The Case Against Sugar should be a powerful weapon against future misinformation." - Eugenia Bone, The Wall Street Journal

"Compelling... Perhaps at long last, sugar is getting its just desserts." - The Economist

"Taubes builds his case through lawyerly layering of rich detail... Extraordinary and refreshing." - The Atlantic

"Taubes sifts through centuries’ worth of data... Practically everything one wants to know about sugar its history, its geography, the addiction it causes is here. In the end, each of us is confronted with a choice. Continue consuming sugar at our current level and suffer the ill effects. Or reduce, if not eliminate, it from our diet, thereby improving our odds of living a long, healthy life." - The Seattle Times

"I can't think of another journalist who has had quite as profound an influence on the conversation about nutrition." - Michael Pollan

“Staggering… Taubes’s brilliant and accessible science writing has won him many fans.” - Booklist, starred review

"Taubes delivers another convincing book... Fascinating and illuminating.” - Library Journal

“Taubes’s work is compelling, as well as meticulously explained and researched. Readers will hate to love this book, since it will cause them to thoroughly rethink the place of sugar in their diets.” - Publishers Weekly

“Taubes helps us understand how to make better decisions regarding sugar as individuals and as a nation.” - Library Journal

“The obesity epidemic is an ever-growing threat to the overall health of our nation. In making the case against sugar, Gary Taubes details the often insidious efforts by the sugar industry to hide how harmful it is, just as the tobacco companies once did. This is required reading for not only every parent, but every American.” - Katie Couric

“No one in this country has worked harder on or better understood the role of sugar in our diet than Gary Taubes. As a journalist, an investigator, a scientist, and an advocate, he is without peer. (Plus, he knows how to write.) The Case Against Sugar is not only a terrific history but a forward-thinking document that can help us think more intelligently about how (and how not) to eat.” - Mark Bittman, author of How to Cook Everything Fast

“Once again, the brilliant Gary Taubes manages to make a complex scientific subject easy to understand. The Case Against Sugar is a riveting history of ideas, a clear analysis of evidence, and an utterly persuasive argument that sugar is the new tobacco. Taubes methodically explains why sugar not sloth, not fat accounts for our unprecedented levels of obesity, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Taubes answers every counter-argument as he exposes bad research, reveals conflicts of interest, and explodes myths.” - Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project 

“I am grateful beyond words for Gary Taubes's courageous and meticulous documentation of the health dangers of sugar. No one has hit the political and economic forces behind this 'acceptable' addiction as clearly and unflinchingly. The information in this book will, quite literally, save your life if you apply it." - Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom

“If you ever doubted that sugar is the root cause of our obesity, diabetes, and heart disease epidemic, then look no further than The Case Against Sugar. This deeply researched, well-reasoned exploration of the history and biology of sugar would convince any supreme court of nutrition that it is sugar, not fat, that should be indicted and limited.  Doctors, scientists, policymakers, and concerned eaters would do well to heed Gary Taubes’s advice.” - Mark Hyman, M.D., author of The Blood Sugar Solution

“The Case Against Sugar is just that. It’s a carefully reasoned, persuasive account of how doubts about sugar in the modern diet were systematically overlooked for over a century. Gary Taubes has become an important voice in the debate surrounding nutrition. He once again presents a compelling argument that will challenge our knowledge about the connection between food and health it’s a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the impact of the ingredients we eat.” - Nathan Myhrvold, lead author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

About the Author 

GARY TAUBES is cofounder of the Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI). He's an award-winning science and health journalist, the author of Why We Get Fat and Good Calories, Bad Calories, and a former staff writer for Discover and correspondent for the journal Science. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and Esquire, and has been included in numerous Best of anthologies, including The Best of the Best American Science Writing (2010). He has received three Science in Society Journalism Awards from the National Association of Science Writers. He is also the recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research. He lives in Oakland, California.