Mark Hyman MD - The Eat Fat, Get Thin Cookbook: More Than 175 Delicious Recipes for Sustained Weight Loss and Vibrant Health

I had been overweight for many years, mostly from my unhealthy eating habits. Eat Fat, Get Thin appealed to me because the instructions were easy to follow.

My results were miraculous. I have lost over 50 pounds. I was an insulin-dependent type 2 diabetic and was able to get off of diabetes and blood pressure medication on the fourth day. My A1C after two months on the program was 6.2, which was lower than during the 15-plus years on medication. My heartburn was gone on day one. My blood pressure has been well within normal range, sometimes lower. I no longer suffer from stiff and achy joints and have not felt this good since I cant remember when. I feel like I am in my 30s again, and Im 68 years old. My family and friends cannot believe the huge transformation.

Joanne S.

Ive seen thousands of patients just like Joannepeople who have tried countless diets and exercise plans, yet have been unable to achieve their health goals. Thats because typical diets dont work.

I know that might sound crazy, but hear me out. Typical diets combine calorie deprivation with tasteless foods, which is a recipe for failure. Its simply too hard to keep cravings at bay when you feel deprived and arent enjoying the food you do eat. Sugar addiction always seems to rear its ugly head, causing people to fall off the wagon. The problem with most diets is that they lack the key ingredient that actually makes food taste good and cuts your hunger: fat!

This is what makes the Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan different from other diets. Its not about deprivation or bland foods; its about eating foods that nourish the whole body, while making your taste buds happy and fixing the hormones that make you hungry and gain weight.

Decades of brainwashing have left many of us afraid of one of the bodys most necessary nutrients. I cant tell you how many patients Ive had to coach, using baby steps, to eat coconut oil and avocados, or how many people have come to my house and been horrified to see me blending grass-fed butter into my coffee. I understand these responses, since I, too, had fat phobia at one point. I spent years eating a low-fat diet and recommending it to all my patients. The idea of promoting fat, especially saturated fat, in a healthy diet seemed outrageous.

Its not hard to understand where this fat fear came from. For years, doctors, scientists, the media, and even our government told us that eating fat causes weight gain and heart disease. These two myths, based on a few faulty studies, started a huge war on fat. Fats were soon replaced by carbs, sugar, and chemicals (low fat is usually code for high sugar), leading to one of the worst disease epidemics of all time. Type 2 diabetes in America has tripled since the 1980s, and researchers estimate that one in three Americans will have diabetes by 2050.

We now know that sugars and carbs, not fats, are the true causes of obesity and heart disease. Overconsumption of processed carbohydrates causes a spike in the bodys production of the hormone insulin, which increases the storage of fat, especially dangerous belly fat. And that is just the start of the damage that sugar can do to your body.

Dietary fat, on the other hand, does not cause a spike in insulin. Unlike eating carbs, eating fat makes your body burn fat, rather than store it. Fats like butter and coconut oil, which were once maligned, are now being touted for their metabolism-boosting properties and the way they suppress hunger, lower triglycerides, reduce fat storage, and even improve athletic performance. Olive oil, or what I like to call liquid gold, has been shown to prevent heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Healthy fatssuch as avocados, wild fatty fish, nuts and seeds, and coconut and olive oilsalso reduce inflammation in the body, help your brain perform better, and increase your overall energy. When you make healthy fats part of a low-glycemic (low sugar and starch), real- and whole-food diet, you can absolutely heal your body.