In full disclosure, this is my very first paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed here are my own. And believe me, I have plenty.
As I decided to approach 2012 as my Year of Living a Fertile Life, of course the first thing I thought of was my health, and certainly my weight plays into this. Larry and I made a deal when I quit my job: I could quit, but I had to make a commitment to get myself baby-ready by cleaning up my diet and getting active.
When BlogHer put out the call for book reviewers for a new title, Why Women Need Fat, my curiosity was certainly piqued. I figured it was a good opportunity for me to explore more about truly nourishing my body and guide me towards reaching my Fertile Living goals this year.
So let’s jump right in, shall we?
I’m going to go ahead and get this out of the way first: as you read, it’s pretty damn clear this book was written by two men. I don’t mean this in any kind of bitchy feminist way either. It’s just very blunt in its tone and on more than one occasion, I felt like women were objectified into nothing more than skinny, fertile waists popping out kids left and right. (I’ll get to that in a bit.)
I wasn’t thrilled with the writing style. While I do appreciate Lassek & Gaulin’s thorough cross-cultural analyses of just how American women got to be so damn fat (shocker: food industry and advertising execs in bed with the government), much of the book was a blur of statistic layered in statistic in a narrative structure woven between complex studies and personal anecdotes about “Susan”, our protagonist Everywoman.
I will say this: By the end of the first page of the introduction, I found myself nodding along to Susan’s story. She used to be wicked skinny but as the years went on, particularly after she had children, the weight kept coming. Diet after diet produced temporary results that only increased her weight gain once she stopped her restrictive regimens. She felt like she was trapped in this endless cycle of temporary weight loss followed by increased weight gain.
“That’s me,” I actually said aloud.
Well, minus the kids part. But it’s so true – I had literally just written about this a few months ago.
The book explores many things I’ve gleaned from various other books about food and dieting: corn is in everything and – SPOILER ALERT – it’s pretty bad for you. But here is where Lassek and Gaulin really dig deep into exactly why corn and soybean oils are just so bad for us. From a historical perspective, people simply didn’t eat corn and soybean oils in the quantities we do now. It’s the pervasiveness of these omega-6 fats in our modern diets that are totally screwing with the “good” fat (omega-3’s) our bodies need, particularly women’s bodies.
Then Why Women Need Fat gets… tangential. We go from in-depth analyses of historical omega-6 consumption to waist-hip ratios, male evolutionary preference for thin waists, the rates of caesarian sections, perceived evolutionary probability of fertility and the size of the human brain. It was kind of like listening to your very talkative friend enthusiastically describe that about which they’re most passionate… while they’re on speed.
And then, just as casually as the conversation went off the rails, it steers back to the idea of genetically pre-determined “set points,” that is, the weight you’re basically just destined to be.
While at first pass, this might sound like it shifts all the blame from fat folks shoving donuts down their throats to the “It’s My Genes!” card, but I’ve had this same conversation with my doctor. According to Doc Awesome, we all have not only our set weights, but just how far our range will go either over or underweight. People like Jared, of Subway Sandwich fame? He’s got an unnaturally high range of variance. Most people have very little ranges, so try as we might, for some of us, dropping 150 lbs just isn’t genetically possible.
It takes 125 pages for the book to really get to the point: what we need to do about it (hint: cut down on omega-6’s and up your omega-3’s). There’s a rather helpful guide of what foods to avoid, what to include, and steps for things you can do right now knowing that a complete shift in lifestyle diet is a very gradual change.
In sum: there’s a lot of fat to cut through to get to the point, but once you get there, it makes sense. Why Women Need Fat isn’t a concise step-by-step to losing weight. It’s more of the intellectual’s guide to understanding why they carry the weight they do and what they can do in the long term to more closely align their bodies to their natural/”set point” weight.
(I will say this: the inner foodie in me was glad to pick up this book. Turns out I have been justified in my love affair with butter, cheese, and olive oil. There’s a reason I love French cuisine so damn much… it’s delicious AND nutritious! Well, kind of. It’s complicated.)
Why Women Need Fat has certainly given me a lot to think about and some tips for making long-term healthy lifestyle changes to my diet. And, as the book points out extensively, it’s not just for my health, but the health of my future kids.
Living a fertile life really takes on a whole new meaning in that context.
BlogHer will be running their Book Club for the next four weeks. You can join me for the first Book Club discussion, “This Means I Get to Use Real Butter, Right?” over at BlogHer. Need to pick up your own copy to join in? Get Why Women Need Fat from Amazon or download the Kindle version for all you fancy-pants eBook readers out there.
If you’ve read it: what did you think? If you didn’t, what other questions do you have? I’ll do my best to answer in the comments!
I’m writing my review right now and I have to say- I really really wanted to like this book. I came to it hoping that it would provide insight that I could apply to my life that was backed by science to get healthy. Little did I know it was pretty much *all* science, or at least framed that way. I wanted a little more than a scientific journal, I wanted to really dig into it and not fall asleep reading it.
I normally love the BHBC books but apparently while this book is about women it’s not *for* women- at least not for this woman.
Interesting. I take my fish oil tablet everyday.
I agree in general that we need fat. In 2010 when I went on a too strict diet I lost a lot of weight so that by the time I got to my IUI I was really too skinny. I learned from that experience and was a bit more leniant then the next year and I managed a successful pregnancy. (Although I also have to thank the lap and Dr R’s expert care!)
I haven’t read the book.. but interesting seeing your thoughts on it. As for butter etc, reminded me of a book written about a woman that I did like.
The_Schwarzbein_principle
It tied together issues around fat, carbs, hormones etc. How low fat diets aren’t maybe all that good…. nor no carb diets… and as someone with POF I have found it helpful… When we bought it, it was like 9 dollars and money well spent for us.
Interesting to read your perspective on the book Keiko! I especially found it interesting that you thought it was so obvious that it was written by two men. I didn’t pay much attention to the names of who wrote it, before I started reading it on my fancy-pants Kindle and thus I just assumed it had been written by two women. I was surprised when I sat down to write my review and noticed that it was actually written by two men. So I didn’t have the same reaction to the writers as you did.
I did feel it was very heady, but really appreciate all the background they shared to make their case. I was especially fascinated by how that guy who was so big on “fat” being the enemy was able to get his POV to be embraced without any real research to back his case, even to the point of being on our food labels to this day!
I wasn’t quite ready to find out everything I learned in this book, but I now I know and do intend to try to make some changes in my family and my diet/eating habits now.
It seems like perfect timing, as you said, for you to have read this book as you begin your year of living a fertile life!
Fun to be doing the BHBC with you this month!
I *hated* this book. I laughed aloud and nodded along with what you wrote because honestly, I learned nothing new other than some horny lonely doctor hopped up on pain meds spent a huge amount of time and money getting guys to objectify women to see what gave them a rise. Rather reminded of Grandpa Simpson going off on a tangent.
I did like the Natural weight thing though. Not everyone is healthy at 115lbs. Did you feel like they were under the impression that the majority of women reading that book would be underweight? I felt the book was directed mainly at them and not fatties like myself.
Ack, I thought I was the only one!!!