November's Book

Fat Chance
Beating the Odds Against
Sugar, Processed Food,
Obesity, and Disease
by Robert H. Lustig MD

Nov. 21 (3rd Thurs)
8pm at Lieschen's

Note from Lieschen:
My book also has a radio interview on NPR if you want to move mine to Nov and people won't have time to read it.  

Click here to go to the NPR radio interview

Summary:
Robert Lustig’s 90-minute YouTube video “Sugar: The Bitter Truth”, has been viewed more than two million times. Now, in this much anticipated book, he documents the science and the politics that has led to the pandemic of chronic disease over the last 30 years.

In the late 1970s when the government mandated we get the fat out of our food, the food industry responded by pouring more sugar in. The result has been a perfect storm, disastrously altering our biochemistry and driving our eating habits out of our control.

To help us lose weight and recover our health, Lustig presents personal strategies to readjust the key hormones that regulate hunger, reward, and stress; and societal strategies to improve the health of the next generation. Compelling, controversial, and completely based in science, Fat Chance debunks the widely held notion to prove “a calorie is NOT a calorie”, and takes that science to its logical conclusion to improve health worldwide. 

Summary from www.goodreads.com

 Click here to visit the library website and reserve your copy.

Robert Lustig’s 90-minute YouTube video “Sugar: The Bitter Truth”

March's Book

Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History
by Florence Williams

March 21st (3rd Thurs.)
8pm at Lieschen's

Summary:
Did you know that breast milk contains substances similar to cannabis? Or that it’s sold on the Internet for 262 times the price of oil? Feted and fetishized, the breast is an evolutionary masterpiece. But in the modern world, the breast is changing. Breasts are getting bigger, arriving earlier, and attracting newfangled chemicals. Increasingly, the odds are stacked against us in the struggle with breast cancer, even among men. What makes breasts so mercurial—and so vulnerable?

In this informative and highly entertaining account, intrepid science reporter Florence Williams sets out to uncover the latest scientific findings from the fields of anthropology, biology, and medicine. Her investigation follows the life cycle of the breast from puberty to pregnancy to menopause, taking her from a plastic surgeon’s office where she learns about the importance of cup size in Texas to the laboratory where she discovers the presence of environmental toxins in her own breast milk. The result is a fascinating exploration of where breasts came from, where they have ended up, and what we can do to save them.

summary from www.goodreads.com

 Click here to go to the library web site

October's Selection

The Weight of the Nation

HBO Documentary
Produced by Sheila Nevins & John Hoffman

Oct. 18th (3rd Thurs.)
8pm at Lieschen's home

We are trying something different this month.  Instead of reading a book, we will view a documentary and discuss it. Please plan on viewing the documentary prior to attending book club. 

A message from Lieschen:

A few months ago HBO did a special called "The Weight of the Nation", which comments on the current state of the obesity epidemic. The series contains 4 one-hour segments, available for free streaming on HBO's website. 

If watching the whole series is too much of a time commitment, Part 1 "Consequences" and Part 3 "Children in Crisis" are the two that deal most with childhood obesity, though I do recommend the entire series. I have a list of discussion questions.

I would only mean for this to be informative and positive. I don't mean to focus on our own weight, politics or anything like that. I was hoping for a discussion of how we can help our children be healthy into young adulthood and beyond.

 Here's a look at the trailer...

Click here to go to the HBO website
and begin watching today