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Narrative Review
74 (
3
); 155-156
doi:
10.25259/IJMS_154_2022

The obesity code: Book review

Department of General Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences and Sum Hospital, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Corresponding author: Jonnalagadda Vihari, Department of General Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences and Sum Hospital, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. viharijtk5@gmail.com
Licence
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, transform, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

How to cite this article: Vihari J. The obesity code: Book review. Indian J Med Sci 2022;74:155-6.

Abstract

Dr. Jason Fung presents a novel, comprehensive model of obesity that delivers unexpected insights into healthy eating in this highly accessible and challenging book. Dr. Fung is a nephrologist (kidney doctor) who launched the Intensive Dietary Management program in Toronto. Dr. Jason Fung is regarded as a member of the foremost experts on intermittent fasting, a subject I knew very little about before going through his book. His intermittent fasting approach is his trademark prescription for obesity and type 2 diabetes individuals. Dr. Fung discusses utilizing intermittent fasting to end the cycle of insulin resistance and achieve a healthy weight.

Keywords

Intensive dietary management
Intermittent fasting
Insulin resistance
Obesity

BOOK REVIEW

Obesity, according to Dr. Fung, is caused by hormones rather than calories, fat grams, or exercise. Insulin, a potent hormone that governs our metabolism, is the primary character in his novel [Figure 1]. Insulin resistance develops when insulin levels are so much elevated for so long time, leading to weight gain. Dr. Fung gives readers much-needed faith and solutions based on research rather than fiction by revealing the underlying causes of obesity.

Figure 1:
The Obesity Code book.

Dr. Fung’s writing style hits the perfect mix of offering enough solid evidence to persuade even the most skeptical physician of his point of view while neither confusing nor tiring the general public. He carries all the readers by hand and guides them in coming out of the darkness of dieting and weight reduction, revealing that obesity is a biological illness characterized by consistently elevated insulin levels and insulin resistance due to consuming the wrong foods so frequently. You will put on weight no matter what diet you adopt or how much activity you do if your insulin levels are elevated.

I’ve read a lot regarding the connection between insulin and fat, so I was nicely pleased to see that Dr. Jason Fung delivers the insulin tale fascinatingly and persuasively. He builds a firing brigade of fascinating facts from history, medicine, politics, science, and human experience, then sets the target at all the useless weight loss cliches and mercilessly blasts them down one after another, straight in front of you. Regardless, I already knew a lot about the insulin-obesity relationship, he presented it so eloquently and from several different perspectives that I was completely captivated.

This publication will be nothing less of a remarkable revelation for the masses who have yet to be introduced to these concepts. Dr. Jason Fung enables patients who have already struggled with weight their entire lifetimes with valuable moments that will ultimately free them from the shame, humiliation, and demotivation which often accompany unsuccessful weight loss attempts and equip them with the knowledge they have to achieve.

Dr. Jason Fung thinks that not only what you consume but also when you consume must be drastically altered.

Quit eating; this is the quickest approach to drop your insulin levels drastically. This is why fasting multiple times each week is a pillar of Dr. Fung’s approach. He informs and convinces readers about his method by discussing fasting traditions in the past, the impact of hormones on fasting, handling the probable adverse effects, and (interestingly) things to consume while fasting.

Dr. Fung emphasizes the significance of eating actual, entire foods, unlike most other low-carbohydrate proponents. In this approach, he shows that he is concerned about your total health as well as your body weight.

While the book does not include any recipes or menus, he does have a pair of examples of 7-day meal programs to show you a sense of his strategy. Instead of prescribing a specific caloric intake, carbohydrate, or protein grams, he lays fundamental ideology to help you make better eating choices. This implies that his theory may be applied to a wide range of diets. He includes interesting insights on a wide range of food products as well as a wealth of knowledge about individual meals and how they affect your metabolism.

WISH LIST

I fully concur with the vast majority of the thoughts in this manuscript; therefore, my concerns are small.

The stress hormone cortisol, according to Dr. Fung, drives weight growth. I wish he had discussed whether fasting causes cortisol levels to rise, which is a hot topic on the internet.

I also wish he had provided his thoughts on why females acquire weight more readily than males, as this would prove that obesity is a hormonal disease.

CONCLUSION

Insulin resistance is a general health issue, in my opinion, and The Obesity Code is the most comprehensive and enjoyable book on the subject I’ve ever read. I’m thrilled to get a doctor-authored, scientific, and easily available resource to share with my peers, families, and sufferers that illustrate what we need to know regarding this critical issue.

Declaration of patient consent

Patient’s consent not required as there are no patients in this study.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.


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