SWEET POISON

This is an intelligent, rigorous look at what is wrong with regular diets, and offers a clear alternative approach. There is no faff, no new age guff just lots of good facts, engaging stories and fascinating theories.

This is a hero's journey along the road to weight loss. David Gillespie is fat, nearly forty and the father of six kids under nine. For years he has struggled with the threat of obesity, lurching from one diet to the next, achieving small successes for short periods of time. David, a smart corporate lawyer equipped with an enquiring mind, begins to query why it is we are so much heavier than previous generations and discovers a culprit: sugar, or, more specifically, the fructose component of sugar. Where once we humans consumed a piece of fruit a week, we now work our way through six apples by drinking a single glass of juice; our bodies, unable to recognise such large quantities of a once-rare commodity, refuse to tell us we are full, so we just keep consuming. David backs his claim with reference to scientific research, but his most convincing argument lies with what happens to his own body when he stops eating sugar: the weight all 40 kg of it drops off and stays off. Part personal story, part self-help and part exposé of the food manufacturing industry, this is a must-read for those on the endless treadmill of dieting and weight gain.

David Gillespie is a Brisbane-based business man. His work as a corporate lawyer, which saw him defend clients from the tobacco industry, gave him a unique perspective on how manufacturers rely on our propensity toward addiction to create and keep a customer base. David has since worked on establishing a number of start-up IT businesses. He is married with six children.