As of July, 2017, 100 million Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) found that in 2015, diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death. My late grandmother suffered from it for many years prior to her death and my mother also deals with the disease. In their cases, they are among the millions that have been diagnosed as having type-2. And with the number of diabetics growing around world, the future prognosis is grim. More disturbingly, diabetes is just one of the several conditions that are considered to be effects of metabolic syndrome. The link between food and health has long been established. Food has been man’s source of energy and the key to life. But somewhere along the way, our approach to what we eat changed dramatically and in the process we face health epidemics never before seen.
Gary Taubes appropriately named this book The Case Against Sugar. What he has written in this book is sure to open your eyes and change the way you look at sugar which might possibly be the most common food ingredient in history. In fact, it is so common that it is hiding in plain sight in dozens of foods we would never suspect to contain added sugar. The first thing I should point out is that Taubes does not tell us to refrain from eating sugar nor does he tell us to consume it. He leaves that to the reader to decide. What he does tell us is the unfiltered truth about the history of sugar and its effects on the human body. Doctors and other health figures have told us for years that fat and salt were the culprits behind many of the illnesses we battled. But what if the real monster was there all along and ignored either unintentionally or even blatantly? Some readers may find the topic far-fetched and wonder if the sugar they put in their coffee and the sugar found in other products they consume daily are truly that bad. Well in order to answer that question, we first have to understand how sugar came to be developed and why it has been so important to business and the food industry. Taubes has done the leg work for us, presenting the material in an engaging format the pulls the reader in. Additionally, he helps us understand the different types of sugars and why it is important that we know them intimately.
The story is centuries old and incredibly, without sugar, many of the empires throughout history would have had enormous difficulty existing. In particular, the British Empire became extremely fond of the white crystals that bankrolled their imperialist machine. Throughout history, sugar has accompanied every civilization, empire and ethnic group. I dare to infer that its commonplace among all of these thing is precisely what made it so hard to believe for many that it could also be life threatening. But it is exactly that which we learn but more importantly, Taubes, like a seasoned professor, explores in-depth why sugar was so important to big industry and why it was necessary to be protected. He includes many facts that some readers may be completely unaware of. The section on the tobacco and sugar industries should frighten every reader, especially if they are a smoker.
Diabetes is far from a modern disease. In fact, it has been in existence for centuries and its rise has been well noted and documented. But what we see through Taubes, is that for a large portion of that time, the connection between sugar and diabetes never fully acknowledged. If you ask any diabetic today, they will readily inform you that sugar is at the same time their worst enemy and most needed substance. Their inability to produce enough insulin to handle rising blood sugar or inability to produce insulin at all, as in type-1 diabetics, highlights the precarious situation that exist for diabetics. In essence, they walk a daily tight rope that could spell success or doom.
Diabetes is a focus of the book but the not the main focus and in addition to what is the silent killer, Taubes makes the case for the relationship between sugar and the conditions classified as metabolic diseases. The connections form an intricate web and at times the reader may need to revisit a section more than once to understand the chain of events that occur in the body upon the ingestion of sugar, whether natural, refined or artificial. Gout, cancer, hypertension, strokes and heart attacks plague millions of Americans and for years, doctors have known that what we eat does affect how we feel and age. Inflammation has become a known factor in all of these conditions and other ailments that plague the human body. Sugar is also known to play a role in all of these conditions. But is it safe to say that the reduction or elimination of sugar could reverse all of these illnesses? Possibly so and incredibly, it is believed that at least 4 in 10 forms of cancer are preventable. I have always refrained from telling anyone what they should or should not eat. That is a highly personal decision. But what I can say is that I have had my own battle with sugar and dropped it from my diet well over ten years ago. When I did, my acne disappeared, I lost weight, my digestive tract improved and I saw a marked improvement in cognitive function in addition to a surplus of energy. However, there was a withdrawal process and I did suffer from headaches and irritability for a couple of weeks as my body readjusted to the absence of sugar and high levels of carbohydrates. Today, I do not even buy it, add it anything I eat or drink and also follow the mantra that if I cannot pronounce what is in a product then I do not eat it. It may sound extreme to some but we are only given one body on this earth and it is up to us to take care of it.
This is the ugly truth about sugar, the once believed to be harmless product that our parents and grandparents gave to us without the knowledge that we have today. The children of today are the first generation that may have a shorter lifespan than their parents. That is unacceptable and I believe, criminal. Our health has been sacrificed in the name of greed and mass production. But we can fight back and take care of our lives. And with books such as this one by Taubes, our minds are being awakened each step of the way. If you suffer from a metabolic condition, trying to quit sugar or even curious about its dangers, this book is a must read.
ISBN-10: 0307946649
ISBN-13: 978-0307946645
In volume two of this three-part series, Bureau 13 saved mankind for a second time as they battled a crafty villain on the USS Intrepid and New York City’s West Side Highway. At the conclusion of the book, we were able to breathe a sigh of relief as Special Agent Ed Alvarez and his team prevailed. However, for Bureau 13, there is no such thing as the end and they are back again as a new enemy threatens to obliterate the City of Chicago and turn the United States in a land of werewolves. At first, the mere mention of werewolves sounds implausible. But we must remember that this is Bureau 13 where the impossible becomes possible on a daily basis.
Today, Venezuela finds itself at the brink of a migrant crisis that could very surpass that of Syria. The mass exodus of Venezuelans to surrounding countries in Latin America has increased as social conditions have deteriorated with food shortages, absurdly inflated currency and political suppression having become daily aspects of life. Nicolás Maduro (1962-) is the sitting President of Venezuela. His administration has come under fire both domestic and abroad for its dismal record on improving Venezuelan society. The country’s fall from grace is one of the most confusing and astounding transformations in modern history. The nation was once at the top of the petroleum export industry and under President Hugo Chávez (1954-2013), Venezuela re-merged as a country to be recognized. On March 5, 2013, he died after a two-year battle with colon cancer and with his death came the end of an era in Venezuela to which the country has been unable and in some cases unwilling to return.
Author Nick Pollotta returns with this second installment in the trilogy of the story of Bureau 13, the secret agency within the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for the tracking and apprehension of all supernatural creatures that pose a treat to the safety of the nation. In 
Nearly all of the reviews I have written have been of books that are classified as non-fiction. This review will be different as I have a taken a short break from the normal material to let my mind have some fun with this book that was recommended to me by a co-worker. It is book one in a trilogy and the review for the second book will follow shortly. The cover of the book gives the reader the indication that it is a novel of horror of the most unspeakable kind. However, I can assure that is not the case but the book is a non-stop ride from beginning to end. If I had to give it a definite classification, I would reply that it is a place where the Men In Black meets The Suicide Squad, Harry Potter with a touch of Fallout added. But what exactly is the book about? And what on earth is Bureau 13?
On August 5, 1962, newspapers around the world relayed the news of the death of Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) the night before at her home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, California at the age of thirty-six. The cause of death was listed as suicide from an overdose of the drugs Pentobarbital and chloral hydrate. However, decades after her death, several question still remain regarding that tragic night of August 4, 1962. What really happened that night and why was she paid a visit by then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968) and his brother-in-law Peter Lawford (1923-1984)?
Previously, I reviewed Frank Dikötter’s 
On June 8, 1967, the USS Liberty was on a reconnaissance mission in the Mediterranean Sea near Sinai, Egypt. The morning started off normally until members of the ship’s crew noticed Israeli fighter jets circling above. The process was repeated several times more before a full-scale attacked was launched upon the unsuspecting ship. Thirty-four men perished in the attacks. Nearly all of the survivors were severely wounded with injuries that could only be described as horrific. The attack caused international outrage as the American and Israeli governments acted to contain the fallout from the nefarious attack. The official statement was that the attack was a grave error committed by Israeli forces upon a ship that allegedly had no clear markings identifying it as a United States Naval vessel. Members of the crew disputed this and some have made their voices heard in an attempt to tell what they know about that day tragic day in June, 1967. James M. Ennes, Jr., was a member of the crew and survived the attacked with a severely broken leg and other mental and physical injuries. He was one of the lucky ones and never wavered in his conviction to tell the truth about what he remembers from that day. Here he tells us the story from his recollections on record for the reader to digest and form an informed opinion.
The Second World War remains the most brutal conflict in history. The number of those who perished is still up for debate and there are many secrets of the war that have been lost to history forever. In the United States, foreign-born citizens with roots in any of the countries part of the Axis powers, found their selves under suspicion and in the case of the Japanese, placed into concentration camps. Although not as inhumane and deadly as the camps in Germany and Poland, they resulted in the rise of resentment among Japanese-Americans toward the United States Government and the country they called home. The dropping of the Atomic bombs further heightened the feeling of resentment and was the first and only time a nuclear weapon was used in warfare. Survivors of the bomb attacks can still be found today, advanced in their years but tragically familiar with the barbarity of modern warfare. Across the pacific, Japanese-American veterans of the war remember the tragedy that befell Japan, the nation to which their families trace their origins. But what happens when half of a family is in Japan and the other half is in the United States? Or what do you do when one son is part of the Japanese Imperial Army and the other is part of the United States Armed Forces? And when the war is over, how do you come to terms with the effects war has had on your family and yourself? This is the story of the Fukuhara family whose lives are the answer to those questions. Written by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto and containing snippets of interviews conducted with those relevant to the story, Midnight in Broad Daylight is a heart wrenching story of a family struggling to survive, having been affected by a war in more ways than one.
FREETHINKING BIBLIOPHILE 
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