Sugar Nation: The Hidden Truth Behind America's Deadliest Habit and the Simple Way to Beat It

Men's Health writer O'Connell (LL Cool J's Platinum Workout) delivers a smart, personally inspired health wakeup call in no uncertain terms: our excessive consumption of carbohydrates is killing us and wrecking our health-care system. Diabetes has reached "global pandemic" proportions, he argues, especially among youth; and while this "invisible disease" has been studied intensively since the role of insulin in regulating the body's sugar was understood by the 1920s (type 1 diabetes means the pancreas can no longer produce insulin, while type 2, the most prevalent today, means the body makes too much and systems begin failing), the message that the latter is entirely preventable due to a closely watched low-carb, high-protein diet has been obscured and downright denied. After witnessing the slow, agonizing death of his father from diabetes, O'Connell, too, got the "tap on the shoulder" when he was diagnosed with prediabetes and subsequently informed himself on how to radically alter his diet and lifestyle. What he learned, mystifyingly, was that most official organizations, like the American Diabetes Association (ADA), and doctors still prescribe a low-fat, high-carb diet and a host of drugs with perilous side effects. In his well-researched, reasoned work, O'Connell flips this myth and offers sage, usable advice in choosing foods, exercising, and challenging this stealthy killer. (Aug.)