I am sick unto death of quick fixes, promised cures, magic pills and dietary advice from questionable nutritional Nazis who don't have the background, training or research chops to offer it. I am tired of She Lost 100 lbs in ONE YEAR stories promising the world at your feet if we only lose weight, knowing that this person is almost always going to be wearing most of not all of it again within a year or so of the Happy-Dappy Lookitme AFTER photo.

I am tired of people on Medium who have supplement businesses writing articles about those magic supplements guaranteed to reverse aging. There are none.

I am sick of it. I am sick of foolish articles by foolish people who are making money off our foolish and desperate need to be thin at all costs. Sick of it.

If you are as well, this book is for you.

So you will forgive me if I point to the single book that I recently read which takes on all the above, Big Food, Big Health, Big Pharma, and all the hucksters, lies and everything else that lead us astray. I've been led astray too, which is part of why I get angry. I have tried hard to lean into solid advice from folks I trust (Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Maria Cross and others whose chops speak for themselves).

This kind of article is where we get solid in your face information as well:

and this:

Not enough of us attend to the articles which demand that we forfeit our Coke and Cheetos. If that's you, if you cannot and will not forfeit processed food and STOP feeding it your kids, this article is not for you. This article is for folks who are bloody well SERIOUS about getting and staying healthy for life. That would be my regular readers, and I hope anyone else who got sucked in by that headline and decided that maybe it's time.

I can't begin to get into the issues of food deserts and the desperate need for proper available nutrition for communities of color which is a massive problem and a blot on the American conscience, as if we had one. That's also in this book.

If you are as sick as I am about misinformation, hacks, stupid diets and all the rest, I have the book for you. Please note: I don't make a red damned cent if you buy it. I DO have the satisfaction of knowing that if you read it and take it seriously, your chances of fundamentally improving your health go up exponentially. And I am all in for that.

Fans of Robert Lustig, MD, a pediatric endocrinologist who is Enemy #1 of all the Bigs, are likely, as I am, happy that he recently published his latest:

Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine

This came out in May, I just got my copy. It reads like a medical thriller because it IS a medical thriller. It's also thrilling as hell to get validated, and also thrilling to find out that I still have shit in my refrigerator which I promptly threw away. AND it's thrilling to be so fundamentally validated that we are being, fooled, faked, forged and de-frauded by all the Bigs.

Not fun, but now I'm armed, dangerous and dedicated to being even more diligent in my food choices.

For all those folks so enamored of organic, you aren't going to like this book. Tough. However, understanding how that label is misused and manipulated to make mountains of money without delivering the real goods is essential. It's not that all organic is bad, didn't say that. But we've been duped and our wallets emptied by fraudsters.

It's important to realize that you and I are being defrauded when we buy Parmesan cheese which is effectively sawdust, or products to that effect. This is our world and it is what we've allowed to evolve.

And I make a formal confession here: I humbly admit that in the right cases, Keto IS an answer but it is not the panacea people want to believe. I was wrong about Keto but it is still not for all of us, in part because it's terribly difficult to sustain. And sustainability is the biggest issue.

The book uncovered other areas where I've been wrong. I am happy to be wrong because that means I can be better informed.

However I was not wrong on a great many other things which Lustig's book truly underscores. That only causes me marginal happiness because truth is most of us will not change our eating habits even when faced with overwhelming evidence. I did. That decision, which I continue to make regularly the more I learn, changed my health and my options. Nothing lucky about it. I LOVE sugar. LOVE sweets, candies, cakes, donuts. I cannot have them.

I inhaled this book the way an addict inhales coke. I have rarely been so utterly fascinated by solid research. If you are obese, read it. If you have medical issues read it. If you want to understand how your crap habits set your unborn child up for obesity and disease for life, read this book.

It is very challenging but it is also extraordinarily freeing.

Lustig wrote two others: Fat Chance and The Hacking of the American Mind. Both of those were righteously terrifying in what he pointed out, and how close to home it comes for how easily we are all led down the garden path, and what it has cost us individually and as a nation and a world.

I am a huge fan of his work. One reason is that in his latest he owns where he made mistakes not only in buying into the bullshit in his early career but also where in his earlier books he now realizes that he was wrong in some cases. A writer who has the guts to own where he has been wrong and to do so publicly has my regard, for that is as rare as an honest politician (pardon me while I vomit).

In my four years on Medium, while my reading can't possibly be comprehensive, I have seen one writer reference Lustig's books. He is hated by the Bigs, and for good reason. You are a fan if you are willing to challenge what you know, what you believe, and your unreasonable trust in government and corporations. It's misplaced and he shows why.

He argues two pillars: protect the liver and feed the gut.

I have been doing a fair to middling job of this for 35 years. In the last two I've been ratcheting down harder with all the benefits that being more careful entails. I am sick unto death of people calling me lucky, when the food and movement choices I make have earned me the health I now have. I have also paid a very high price for sugar addiction (and yes, he validates that sugar IS addicting) and being overly fond of foods that have no value whatsoever.

And about sugar: part of the reason the Amazon rain forest is being burned?

To grow sugar. We cannot separate out crap diet from the planet's destruction. See: palm plantations wiping out orangutans to make snack food that kills. Monocrops, the destruction of insects, birds, fish, the ocean. We can't dodge the science.

I am quite happy to continue to toss out food that isn't food that I happen to love, and will miss, and make other changes my palate doesn't appreciate but that my body sure as hell does. That isn't for everyone.

This writer has just re-committed to getting her vegetables at the local farmer's market. That's another step that is no longer negotiable. If you get your oranges from Brazil, just know they are generous with their Roundup use. Buy local from farmers whose goods you know. I know that's not available for many, but if you can, get back to getting what is in season and not soaked with cancer-causing chemicals. Which most ultra-processed food is, especially sugar.

One of my favorite quotes of Lustig's:

It's not about obesity, it never was.

The key to the kingdom is that it is not about obesity, it is about metabolic dysfunction and anyone can get it, and that's what makes it a public health crisis, because obesity is a result of the problem, not the cause.

I never want to hear any of you talk about the obesity epidemic ever again, because that is the food industry's mantra, that is what they use to obfuscate the truth, and you play right into it when you talk about it.

Robert Lustig, MD, MSL

It's a hard read. And if you are among those peddling quick cures, magic detox teas and anything that makes money off folks' misery, this book ain't for you.

Lustig is a juggernaut for solid reporting, research, and doing the background digging on all the dirt behind how Big Food adopted Big Tobacco's policies.

It's dirty, which is why it reads like a thriller.

I am a fan of good research. I am also a fan of people brave enough to call bullshit on the American economy and how too much of it is sending us to our graves early, riddled with disease and internal damage. How so many of the world's corporations are killing us AND the planet with sugar, chemicals, lousy food, insecticides and bad farming practices.

If you don't want to be one of those, I recommend Lustig's book. All of them,in fact.

But you don't have to. You can go right ahead and keep searching for the Magic Pill which allows you to eat all the crap you wanna while you also look like a fitness pro.

The greatest heartbreak of all is that all these industries employ millions of people. So of course, JOBS. I saw someone celebrate becoming a "Martian" the other day when she got a job with the candy maker.

You know my response. If you are getting paid to make, market and push poison, that makes you part of the problem.

And just like Big Pharma, Big Food and Big Tobacco aligned with Big Government, I've got some fine swamp land in the Everglades to sell you for your retirement.

Let me repeat: I have no affiliation with Lustig, his organization nor do I benefit in any way from talking about his books. What I do benefit from are when my readers take action, make changes, glean the benefits and are kind enough to let me know. Their stories make my work worthwhile. And yes, the headline is an overstatement, because the more people like Lustig uncover, the more books will come out, and with any luck, the better informed we will all be and better off for it.

And please check out other recommendations from other readers in the comments. Lustig isn't the only voice of sanity, but he's my fave.