A fascinating look at the way our bodies store fat, and the important role it plays in our health. I had no idea fat had a role in so many aspects of our lives. This is in no way a weight loss guide, but it does make you think about what you put in your body in a different way.

The first 2/3 of Tara's "Secret Life of Fat" are fantastically interesting. She presents a wide variety of research and case studies that showcase the body's need for fat, and also how fat functions as an organ in the body. Her prose style is through without being overly technical, and she presents very complex information in an engaging way. It's not Mary Roach levels of science writing--Tara's not a humorous writer, and her background in science means that she is not learning the way Roach's books imply Roach learns--but overall, it's very readable.

The book suffers in its last section, which details Tara's own struggles with weight loss. After discussing how fat functions and adapts to the body, and the role genetics play in how the body processes fat, Tara details a very specific regimen that she uses to force her bodyweight down to a lower number. It's very consuming and reads more like an instruction manual for how to have a really pernicious eating disorder. This final section makes me hesitant to recommend the book as a whole.

Fascinating read! On one hand, its kind of depressing to realize how much biology is fighting against significant weight loss. On the other hand, its liberating to know there is a very real reason why I have such a difficult time losing and keeping the weight off. I would recommend this to anyone who fights to lose weight, particularly those of us who are in the obese and morbidly obese range. There are a lot of things to think about, but also lots to take to your doctor! Hopefully, medical science will continue these investigations and find safe ways to help those of us who struggle so much with this disease.

Excellent book - very easy to read and understand, and provides some groundbreaking information that could change the way women feel about their bodies. Packed full of scientific information, thoroughly fascinating and enjoyable read.

Biochemist Sylvia Tara, PhD, has written a fascinating book that was just released entitled The Secret Life of Fat: The Science Behind the Body's Least Understood Organ and What it Means to You. If you look at the subtitle, the book does an excellent job of addressing the first half of the subtitle--examining all the latest scientific theories about fat--and a less excellent job at fully addressing the second portion of the subtitle--how to apply that science to your own personal struggle to keep fit. It is well worth reading, however, just for the science and research portion. Most of us do struggle with fat and the role that plays in keeping our bodies healthy or non healthy, and this is certainly a time of year when many of us are trying to adopt healthy habits at the beginning of a new year. The research and science covered in this book was fascinating and illuminating: Did you know that fat was actually an endocrine organ critical to our health? Did you know how that organ communicates with our brains and that fat is necessary for our brains to work? Do you understand the different types of fat our bodies manufacture and why? Did you know about studies about fat and adipose derived stem cells? Did you know that fat and immunity are tied together? Have you read the latest studies about the causes of fat in terms of genetics, hormones, and virus anitobies? Did you know that fat is affected by our gut health? I could go on and on. Dr. Tara examines the science of fat citing individual case studies and the latest research and it is quite readable to a non biochemist. I highly recommend reading the science and research portion of the book, and will apply portions of what I learned through it to become healthier. Some of the research sounded more promising in terms of medical science finding new ways to deal with obesity and fat than others, but it was fascinating to explore the possibilities. If, however, you are reading the book in search of miraculous new simple advice that will help your extra pounds melt away-- you will not find it. At the end of the book, the author herself speaks of her personal struggle to lose fat, and falls back on the old standbys of caloric intake, exercise, and fasting. Her will power and success in losing weight and fat are admirable, but, are time tried methods. This is why, I am giving the book four rather than five stars. Most of it is five star material, and I recommend it as a very informative read, but, I thought the book did not explore how the research could be applied in the " what it means to you" portion of the subtitle as thoroughly as it could have. Thank you W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for sending me an a free ARC and allowing me to review this book.

THE SECRET LIFE OF FAT

Perhaps the most audacious assertion Sylvia Tara makes in The Secret Life of Fat is that fat is very much like an additional organ of the human body.

The literature, she asserts, supports this–a fact that we have no reason to doubt. After all, she's the subject matter expert who's written a book on the topic, explaining that fat performs many functions akin to a standalone organ. For instance, fat is what prepares the female body for childbearing. It also serves as a receptor and/or transmission medium for various biological information without which our body cannot function correctly. Most importantly, certain kinds of fat also contain all-important stem cells that have wide-ranging applications for healthcare.

The bottomline is that there's a lot about fat that we just don't understand if not outright misunderstand, conditioned as we are to believe that fat is simply bad for us. Period. But that's not entirely true: as The Secret Life of Fat makes clear, the human body needs fat, explaining that it is equally dangerous for people to adopt the latest health fad seeking to eradicate body fat as it is to go to the other extreme and pack on the pounds indiscriminately.

In that respect, The Secret Life of Fat is an illuminating read, going through a lot of the scientific literature on the subject. Though calling fat an organ sounds exactly like the kind of bold claim that researchers would have to make to grab attention and get published, there are other insights besides that are well worth knowing. Tara has written a comprehensive account of fat, helping readers understand the way it works inside our bodies (and doesn't). A particularly illuminating chapter, for instance, examines with the help of two case studies the way that bacteria and viruses can cause people not just to become fat but also keep on whatever weight has been gained, proving that it isn't just food that can make us grow fat.

Tara's book isn't meant to be a how-to diet instructional, but it would come as no surprise if those reading it pick up a thing or two to help them in their own personal struggles with weight. Indeed, the last third of the book does touch on such practical topics, albeit with a noticeable academic sheen. Nonetheless, reading The Secret Life of Fat is certainly much more useful than jumping headlong into the latest would-be diet craze, which for reasons the book makes evident arguably ranks among the worst things a person can do to the themselves.