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THE OBESITY CODE COOKBOOK

activity was largely unheard of in the 1970s. People just didn’t sweat to

the oldies in that decade. The proliferation of gyms, running clubs, and

exercise studios was a 1980s phenomenon.

Second, why are we so powerless to stop it? Nobody wants to be fat.

For more than forty years, doctors have consistently advised that follow-

ing a low-fat, calorie-reduced diet is the way to stay lean. Yet the obesity

epidemic has accelerated relentlessly. From 1985 to 2011, the prevalence

of obesity in Canada tripled from 6 percent to 18 percent. All the avail-

able evidence shows that people were desperately trying to cut calories

and fat and exercise more often. But they weren’t losing weight. The

only logical answer is that we didn’t understand the problem. Eating too

much fat and too many calories wasn’t the problem, so cutting the fat

and calories was not the solution. So, what causes weight gain?

In the 1990s, I graduated from the University of Toronto and the Uni-

versity of California, Los Angeles, as a physician and kidney specialist. I

must confess that I did not have the slightest interest in the treatment

of obesity. Not during medical school, residency, or specialty training, or

even as I entered practice. But I wasn’t alone. The same was true for just

about every physician at that time who had trained in North America.

Medical school taught us virtually nothing about nutrition, and even

less about the treatment of obesity. There were hours and hours of lec-

tures dedicated to the proper drugs and surgery to prescribe to patients.

I was proficient in the use of hundreds of medications. I was proficient

in the use of dialysis. I knew all about surgical treatments and indica-

tions. But I knew nothing about how to help people lose weight—despite

the fact that the obesity epidemic was already well established and the

type 2 diabetes epidemic was following closely behind, with all its health

implications. Doctors just didn’t care about diet. That was what dieti-

tians were for.

But diet—and maintaining a healthy weight—is an integral part of

human health. It’s not just about looking good in a bikini for the sum-

mer swimming season. If only. The excess weight people were now