Book Review: The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat, and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet

For more than 60 years, in the United States, the official nutrition advice for achieving optimal health has been to eat a diet low in fat, especially saturated fat, and high in carbohydrate-rich foods, such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. In her book The Big Fat Surprise, investigative journalist Nina Teicholz rebels against this dietary dogma and exposes the disturbing truth that some of our most commonly held dietary assumptions—that saturated fat causes heart disease and that a low-fat, near-vegetarian diet is best—are, simply put, just plain wrong.