The Secret Life of Fat

August 15, 2016
Finally, a book that sheds some light on understanding body fat—specifically, its role, why it is so difficult to fight, and how it works differently for different people. This debut book by biochemist Tara takes a hot topic and explores every avenue regarding the causes of obesity: genetics, microbes, lifestyle, race, gender, and so on. Although an incredible $60 billion was spent in the U.S. in 2014 battling fat, Tara posits that fat is actually a critical organ with an essential role to play in the endocrine system. She frankly describes her own struggles with weight, which led her to realize “we are not all created equal, at least when it comes to fat.” Peppered with individual case studies, the book meticulously explains why fat isn’t “one size fits all,” particularly in terms of dieting. Tara recommends persistence as the main tool for dieters, combined with a diet “customized for you biologically, psychologically, and socially.” This genuinely enlightening book will be a revelation to those engulfed in self-blame and shame about their weight. Hopefully, individualized weight loss will become the way of the future, leading to effective new treatments for those desperately seeking them.

October 15, 2016
Americans spend more money on the war against fat than the war against terror. As Tara writes, "we are indeed a nation at war with a body part."After the birth of her second child, the author, who has a doctorate in biochemistry and has served as a consultant for major biotech companies, struggled to hold her weight in check with a combination of diet and exercise in order to pass what she describes as the "skinny jeans" test. From her adolescence, dieting and exercise had become an obsession but not a solution, and Tara was on a roller coaster, losing extra pounds on a starvation diet and then gaining them back just by eating dinner. Her professional training fueled her determination to find out why she gained weight while her friends, who ate more and exercised less, remained thin. Examining a variety of scientific studies, she made a surprising discovery. Experiments revealed what she calls "the obesity paradox," which showed how fat plays an important part in maintaining our overall health. While obesity is a contributing factor to heart disease, the survival rate after heart failure is better for people with "a higher body mass index and higher fat." Tara also discovered new reports suggesting the possibility that obesity is the result of a viral infection. Ongoing research has identified people with an antibody to the virus who gained significantly greater body mass over a 10-year period. Researchers have also found that fat stores stem cells, which play a vital role in replacing bone, muscle, and cartilage in the body. For Tara, this provides a convincing explanation of why there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of maintaining a healthy weight. The author ably combines an accessible explanation of how the body's metabolism works with a clear survey of the latest research on obesity. A book that should have wide appeal, not only to those fighting the battle of the bulge.

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July 1, 2016

Though we fight fat furiously (to the tune of $60 billion a year in this country alone), it's essential to our well-being. It affects brain size, supports our reproductive and immune systems, and is so important to the body's self-defense that fat can grow back no matter what we eat. Biochemist Tara in fact identifies fat as an endocrine organ and here argues that knowing how it functions will go a long way toward keeping us healthy.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2016
Blubber. Flab. Even fat's alternative names sound disgraceful. Adipose is surely the most scorned, obsessed with, and misunderstood tissue in the human body. Billions are spent battling it. Yet fat is positioned somewhere between friend and foe. Biochemist Tara gives readers the skinny on fat in a lively discussion that incorporates sumo wrestlers, a bloated diet industry, genetics, and leptin (the satiety hormone). Fat is an organ and a component in the endocrine system with multiple functions: storing energy, releasing hormones, facilitating puberty, generating heat, and providing insulation. Tara explains that too much fat is linked with lots of health problems (diabetes, heart disease, even cancer), and she covers methods of controlling fat, including exercise, proper eating, intermittent fasting, and managing your microbiome. She summarizes current adipose research; for example, infectobesity is the theory that some viruses and bacteria can cause excess fat production. Tara emphasizes the importance of keeping body fat in a normal range and appreciating adipose for its physiological worth. Readers will discover that, regardless of body size and shape, fat does some heavy work on our behalf.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)