If you read a decent number of food/diet/health books, as I do, you become jaded with their earnest stories that never seem to surprise. I knew a book by Kevin Hall would be different, because Hall, a highly analytical physicist who was drawn to his field of nutrition science, is at the forefront of high-quality, important diet research. Moreover, he has a reputation for absolute integrity, a quality that in other food/diet/health authors can be smudged by conflicts of interest and careerism. My worry, upon turning over the first page of Food Intelligence: The Science of How Food Both Nourishes and Harms Us was whether his writing and narrative storytelling would match his scientific fame, but I need not have fussed, for his co-author, health journalist Julia Belluz, is a splendid, cogent, readable writer, as well as an intelligent, dogged researcher in her own right. In this book, the authors range over the entire gamut of modern diet wars, beginning by tackling calories, metabolism, protein, and fat, before turning to the nervous system’s role in eating and the impact of our food environment (which Hall has proven, beyond doubt, messes with human brains and directly leads to the obesity epidemic blighting modern society through heart disease and diabetes), before tackling some possible solutions and criticizing elements of the “individual responsibility” paradigm pushed by the food industry. The final chapters tackle the overall food system and its horrors. Although the authors strike an optimistic note in the climax to Food Intelligence, the overall message is hugely troubling. Readable, full of food/diet insights I can guarantee you do not know, and inflamed by a passion for proper science, Food Intelligence is THE health book you must read this year.
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