Preview
  • Rethinking Diabetes

  • What Science Reveals About Diet, Insulin, and Successful Treatments
  • By: Gary Taubes
  • Narrated by: Arthur Morey
  • Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (83 ratings)

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Rethinking Diabetes

By: Gary Taubes
Narrated by: Arthur Morey
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Publisher's summary

An eye-opening investigation into the history of diabetes research and treatment by the award-winning journalist and best-selling author of Why We Get Fat • "[Gary] Taubes’s meticulous, science-based work makes him the Bryan Stevenson of nutrition, an early voice in the wilderness for an unorthodox view that is increasingly becoming accepted."—Niel Barsky, The Guardian

Before the discovery of insulin, diabetes was treated almost exclusively through diet, from subsistence on meat, to reliance on fats, to repeated fasting and near-starvation regimens. After two centuries of conflicting medical advice, most authorities today believe that those with diabetes can have the same dietary freedom enjoyed by the rest of us, leaving the job of controlling their disease to insulin therapy and other blood-sugar-lowering medications. Rather than embark on “futile” efforts to restrict sugar or carbohydrate intake, people with diabetes can lead a normal life, complete with the occasional ice-cream cake, side of fries, or soda.

These guiding principles, however, have been accompanied by an explosive rise in diabetes over the last fifty years, particularly among underserved populations. And the health of those with diabetes is expected to continue to deteriorate inexorably over time, with ever-increasing financial, physical, and psychological burdens. In Rethinking Diabetes, Gary Taubes explores the history underpinning the treatment of diabetes, types 1 and 2, elucidating how decades-old research that is rife with misconceptions has continued to influence the guidance physicians offer—at the expense of their patients’ long-term well-being.

The result of Taubes’s work is a reimagining of diabetes care that argues for a recentering of diet—particularly, fewer carbohydrates and more fat—over a reliance on insulin. Taubes argues critically and passionately that doctors and medical researchers should question the established wisdom that may have enabled the current epidemic of diabetes and obesity, and renew their focus on clinical trials to resolve controversies that are now a century in the making.

©2024 Gary Taubes (P)2024 Random House Audio
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Critic reviews

"One of the crucial responsibilities of scientists and science journalists is to question established beliefs and common assumptions. Gary Taubes accomplished precisely this in this thought-provoking book. Through his extensive research, Taubes offers significant insights, shedding light on the evolution of our understanding of diabetes, for good or bad. Additionally, Taubes delves into the potential of promising and efficacious treatments, offering a glimpse into the future of diabetes management."—Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies

“Decades of research have brought us shifting and even contradictory recommendations on managing diabetes. In lucid prose, Taubes sifts through and critically reviews what is known. Rethinking Diabetes convincingly makes the case for a new paradigm for the prevention and treatment of this common disorder.”—Abraham Verghese, M.D., author of The Covenant of Water

"If there is one book that can help us understand where diabetes treatment has gone wrong and how to fix it, it is Gary Taubes’s Rethinking Diabetes. Taubes’s new book is both an objective, methodical history of type I and II diabetes—among the deadliest and costliest conditions of our time—and a blueprint for how to move forward. Taubes’s proposed approach leverages decades of evidence of efficacy of low-carbohydrate, high-fat nutritional strategies that can reverse diabetes in most people. This book should be required reading for our nation’s leaders and citizens alike, especially those failed by a standard of care dictated by misguided scientific dogma."—Jan Ellison Baszucki, author of A Small Indiscretion and founder of Metabolic Mind

What listeners say about Rethinking Diabetes

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Outstanding

Gary Taubes has produced an excellent work of the medical history about diabetes, T1 and T2. Anyone with diabetes or who has a family member with diabetes should read/listen to this book.

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Very informative.

I really liked the history lesson on diabetes and treatments through the years. Very good information throughout.

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Lots of information

This was very helpful to see the history behind this disease and how it has been addressed through the years by the medical community.

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The amount of cognitive dissonance that exists in the medical community.

I felt like Gary Taubes  was very well researched in the rating of this book and  courageously exposed watch the medical community has been slow to embrace.

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very detailed history of the study of diabetes melitus

it is unbelievable how much confirmation bias has colored what we know about how to deal with this disease.

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Coke, fries & burger on a pretzel bun

The American diet is killing us because we eat what we want instead of what we should. Diabetics want to eat anything they want to eat and then dose themselves with enough insulin to make them feel normal. Well read diabetics will avoid carbs that send blood sugar rising and eat foods that keep them healthy well into old age. within these pages, if your mind is open, you’ll understand that we have known how to keep our A1c with a normal ranges since the late 1800s but have ignored it. Doctors and the American diabetes association, financially benefit from keeping diabetics doped up on insulin. This was an excellent read.

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Quality As Always

Very thoroughly covered diabetes, from early treatments/ perceptions to modern day. No one researches a topic to greater depths. Some of his previous work is covered again here, but relayed in a different way. Just guessing, but done so to address critics of his other books. Whether you are new to Mr. Taubes work or have read all of it, this is most definitely worth your time.

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Brings it together

I’ve read a lot of books about diabetes and this book brought together connections that helped me make sense of my own situation and those of family and society. Insulin is the unifying factor in many loved one’s disease and my own struggle with weight. None have diagnosed diabetes but each manifested differently the connections to it—obesity, kidney disease, heart disease, dementia, Anxiety/depression, anorexia, addiction. I definitely recommend.

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Great information doctors should all read

Taubes has nailed it again, bringing information that should be readily available out into the public eye.

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Rampant corruption abounds in the worldwide medical system.

Having participated in the Covid vaccine war instituted by governments against the common people (and refusing all shots), I was amazed to see similar mechanisms employed by the American Heart Association to bully other well-meaning institutions into accepting their dogma. NGOs such as AHA and ADA manipulate the narrative by intentionally omitting studies citing non-evidence based reasons that any conscientious physician would demand to expect from those organizations. Governments appear to accept these verdicts at face value and lack the awareness that investigations into corruption are necessary. This is professional journalism at its finest. Thank you Gary Taubes for this important contribution to medicine!

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