The explosive growth in the use of weight-loss drugs is a supreme irony within a food system that creates the very chronic diseases that lead to obesity and a medical system that "manages" those conditions with no intention of actually curing them. In fact, "manage" is too kind of word for this setup for the truth is, medical treatment of chronic conditions more often than not just perpetuates these conditions and sometimes makes them worse.
I rarely do book reviews, but I believe Metabolical may be the most important contemporary account of the nexus between modern diets, chronic illness and ecological ruin. So, I'm going to give you a taste of what's in it (pun intended).
According to Dr. Robert Lustig, author of Metabolical, thanks to the food and medical industries, the American public has come to believe the following things:
- Gaining weight (sometimes lots of it) as we age is normal.
- Developing chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease is inevitable for many people.
- Once a person has a chronic condition, it cannot be reversed and must be managed primarily through medication and sometimes surgery.
- Cancer strikes mostly randomly.
- Exercise can prevent at least some of these conditions or even reverse them.
