Gene Eating: The Story of Human Appetite

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One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to weight loss is believing it can be ‘effortless’,” he says.

Our innate attraction to food high in carbs and fat (i.e. milk) is probably to encourage us to consume energy-dense substances while growing. However we don't outgrow this speculative tendency, and so processed food high in sugar and fat tends to be overconsumed.Okay. I dutifully read the whole book, cover to cover, and now I'm going to exercise my constitutional right to give it a bad review.

Yeo tends to lecture without shoes on, which helps his undergraduates remember him, he suggests. “That barefoot guy with no hair, talking about diabetes.” He has the look of a guru, but resists the idea of gurus. He prefers to be directed by the complexities of the science. A bit of his experimentation is on himself. For a recent series of the BBC’s Trust Me, I’m a Doctor on which he is a presenter, he ate vegan for a month. A couple of things happened: he lost about 10lbs and his blood cholesterol levels dropped dramatically. The two biggest elements of food that influence caloric availability are (a) protein content, and (b) fibre content. So if you have foods that are higher in protein or higher in fibre, you in effect reduce the caloric availability of the food. It just so happens that if you have food that is higher in protein content and high in fibre, it tends to be a good marker of quality. Semaglutide makes your brain think you’re slightly fuller than you are, so you eat less, and if someone is finding it difficult to lose weight, why not use it? I’m not countenancing drugging the entire population, but I think semaglutide should be one of the tools we use, alongside lifestyle intervention, exercise, all of those things. An excellent and engaging book, but also an important one. It is about time that a serious, respected academic provided a voice of reason' Anthony Warner aka THE ANGRY CHEF Giles Yeo was born in London, England and previously lived in Singapore, San Francisco, and since 1994 has been based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. [2] In 1994 he graduated from University of California, Berkeley (Molecular and Cell Biology) and in 1997 he completed a PhD study at University of Cambridge ( Molecular genetics). [3] His focus is on the study of obesity, brain control of body weight and genetic influences on appetitive behaviour. [4] Career [ edit ] Media [ edit ]So is it healthy to be vegan? As long as it is done properly and the deficiencies in B12, iodine, as well as iron and calcium, are met (by supplementation if necessary), then it is certainly a healthy way to live. It is, however, a choice that some of us are privileged enough to be able to make. It isn’t, by any stretch, the only way to eat healthily. I thought his insights on Processed food vs. unprocessed or less processed food was really good. Because there's a matter of it seeming obvious that some calories are "better" than others... but why? While we don't even have definitive answers here, it was fascinating to learn that your body basically works harder to break down the unprocessed foods, so you're burning more calories when you consume those vegetables, etc. It feels obvious when you say it but it makes so much sense. He mentioned a study that was done where they gave basically identical meals to two groups of people with the same calories, but one group had highly processed bread/cheese and the other didn't. The less processed group burned more calories overall. Dr Giles Yeo is the author of Gene Eating published by Hachette Australia and available in all good bookstores now. But on the other hand then, the book is heavily (!) frontloaded with a detailed scientific lecturing about the most intricate workings of our digestional system: Even down to the smallest molecules does Dr. Yeo take us through the chemicals processes happening in your body while breaking down food. Regardless, the main message I got out of the book was that calories don’t count because they’re not what are actually determining our eating habits; if you want to lose weight, counting calories will only help you in the short term. Instead, changing the types of food you always eat will help, when done reasonably and taking into account your own life circumstances. Both fiber and protein let you eat more while absorbing fewer net calories, and the foods that are high in protein and high in fiber are rich in all the other nutrients you need, so it’s win win.