---
product_id: 51934596
title: "The Big Fat Surprise: why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet"
price: "144.64 DT"
currency: TND
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/51934596-the-big-fat-surprise-why-butter-meat-and-cheese-belong
store_origin: TN
region: Tunisia
---

# 4.6/5 from 3,985 Reviews 21,549 Best Seller Rank Top 50 in Cheese & Dairy Books The Big Fat Surprise: why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet

**Price:** 144.64 DT
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 🧈 Rethink fat, reclaim flavor — join the high-fat revolution!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Big Fat Surprise: why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet
- **How much does it cost?** 144.64 DT with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/51934596-the-big-fat-surprise-why-butter-meat-and-cheese-belong)

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## Why This Product

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## Key Features

- • **Trusted by Thousands:** 4.6-star rating from nearly 4,000 readers who crave evidence-based nutrition.
- • **Top-Ranked Bestseller:** Ranks #44 in Cheese & Dairy and #67 in Nutrition for Medical Conditions.
- • **High-Fat Diet Reimagined:** Makes a compelling case for guilt-free consumption of butter, meat, and cheese.
- • **Science-Backed Myth Buster:** Reveals decades of flawed low-fat diet science overturned by rigorous research.
- • **Cultural & Historical Insights:** Unpacks surprising truths about olive oil and Mediterranean diet myths.

## Overview

The Big Fat Surprise challenges 60 years of low-fat diet dogma with groundbreaking research, revealing that butter, meat, and cheese are not only safe but potentially the healthiest dietary choices. This bestseller combines scientific rigor with cultural history to debunk myths and empower readers to embrace a high-fat lifestyle without guilt.

## Description

A groundbreaking study that reveals how decades of misleading science and policy unjustly demonized the high-fat diet, which might actually be our healthiest option. For the past 60 years we have been told that a low-fat diet can protect against obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Yet despite many of us taking this advice in the developed West, we are now in the midst of an obesity epidemic that is breeding serious health problems. Recent more rigorous scientific work has overturned some of the shoddier theories of earlier decades to demonstrate conclusively that we have been needlessly avoiding red meat, cheese, whole milk, and eggs for decades, and that we can now, guilt-free, welcome these delicious foods back into our lives.

Review: It's NOT a diet book. - An interesting review of the history of the low fat diet and the relationship between fat and heart disease. Worth reading for the description of the way in which the diet-heart disease theory started and how it grew to become the consensus opinion despite very little direct evidence. The book also illustrates just how difficult it is to isolate and quantify the effects of dietary fat (or any other component) in a reliable fashion without either spending boggling quantities of money or infringing on the human rights of test subjects. Or both. I've not got the time to chase up the authors references or argue through all her evidence so I have to take her word that, when she says a study is unreliable for reasons x, y, z, she's probably correct and not telling porkies. All I can say is that, with the little knowledge I have and with the additional reading around that I've done, she makes a good case that a low fat diet (20-25% of total calories) is probably, at best, not harmful and certainly not the miracle cure for heart disease we've been led to believe it would be. All of this is delivered in calm, measured prose and impartiality. Evidence later in the book that a diet high in carbs (particularly refined carbs) may actually be the cause of the obesity epidemic is well presented, though given the absence of studies in the literature and the difficulty in conducting them, its difficult to know just how conclusive the arguments are. I was left with the feeling that government dietary recommendations were initially made on the basis of some poor quality research combined with leaps of faith, all in the absence of a complete understanding of what the body does with the various forms of fat we eat. The book doesn't make diet recommendations and doesn't have a meal plan. Although it refers to the Atkins diet, it has to as an exemplar of a diet high fat low carb diet.
Review: What a Great Book!!! - What a great book! About as thorough as you can get, when it comes to the details of how and why the high carb diet is so prominent. A really interesting read, there's so much information packed in to it. For example from, from Chapter 7... "Homer’s “Liquid Gold”? It is reassuring to think that olive oil, with it’s presumed four thousand years of history, must at least be safe, if not beneficial, for human health, perhaps in ways we haven’t managed to capture through scientific studies. Homer called it “liquid gold”, after all. Or did he? Although “liquid gold” appears on lots of websites selling olive oil, the phrase doesn’t appear in any translation of Homer’s Oddysey that I could find. Indeed, the actual passage in the Oddysey says something quite different: Odysseus is given “olive oil in a flask of gold” to anoint himself with. In fact, nowhere in any of the Hellenic texts is there any mention that olive oil was consumed as part of the diet. The oil was ancient, true, but – as it turns out – not as a food; it was employed mainly as a cosmetic, for rubbing over the body during ritual activities and athletic contests or simply to enhance physical beauty among gods and mortals alike. Did the use of olive oil as a food go back much beyond the earlier twentieth century even? Was it the “dominant item of the diet”, going back “at least four thousand years” as Keys claimed? Amazingly, it seems not. “Less than 100 years ago, ordinary people in many parts of Greece ate far less oil than today”, wrote a French historian in 1993. Greek archaeologist Yannis Hamilakis, who has researched the subject extensively, looked at Crete in particular and found that the oil was insignificant as a substance crop before modern times. The amount of olive oil available to the average medieval Cretan peasant for consumption, was in fact, “very low”, and its production expanded only in the mid-seventeenth century, when encouraged by Venetian rulers seeking to respond to a growing industrial demand for the oil – mainly making soap. As Hamilakis concludes, the historical record shows that “despite conventional wisdom, there is almost no evidence which could indicate with certainty” that olive oil was made for “culinary use” in Greece until the nineteenth century. In Spain, too, olive oil did not appear to be consumed in substantial amounts until the 1880’s. And it was apparently the same story in southern Italy, where one scholar found it “doubtful” that olive oil “made a contribution to the diet for over 40 centuries”. An analysis of tree cultivation in southern Italy indicates that olive oil “must have been a scarce commodity until at least the 16th century and… its principal use in medieval times was in religious rituals”. Indeed in historical accounts going back to antiquity, the fat more commonly used in cooking in the Mediterranean, among peasants and the elite alike, was lard. So it seems that olive oil is actually a relatively recent addition to the Mediterranean diet and not an ancient foodstuff, despite the best efforts by interested parties to add Homer to the marketing team." I did a quick search on google for "liquid gold olive oil" and got 847,000 results!!!

## Features

- New Store Stock

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | 21,549 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 44 in Cheese & Dairy 67 in Nutrition for Medical Conditions 78 in Meat, Poultry & Game (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,985 Reviews |

## Images

![The Big Fat Surprise: why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Gfd6G0wkL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ It's NOT a diet book.
*by M***K on 29 December 2014*

An interesting review of the history of the low fat diet and the relationship between fat and heart disease. Worth reading for the description of the way in which the diet-heart disease theory started and how it grew to become the consensus opinion despite very little direct evidence. The book also illustrates just how difficult it is to isolate and quantify the effects of dietary fat (or any other component) in a reliable fashion without either spending boggling quantities of money or infringing on the human rights of test subjects. Or both. I've not got the time to chase up the authors references or argue through all her evidence so I have to take her word that, when she says a study is unreliable for reasons x, y, z, she's probably correct and not telling porkies. All I can say is that, with the little knowledge I have and with the additional reading around that I've done, she makes a good case that a low fat diet (20-25% of total calories) is probably, at best, not harmful and certainly not the miracle cure for heart disease we've been led to believe it would be. All of this is delivered in calm, measured prose and impartiality. Evidence later in the book that a diet high in carbs (particularly refined carbs) may actually be the cause of the obesity epidemic is well presented, though given the absence of studies in the literature and the difficulty in conducting them, its difficult to know just how conclusive the arguments are. I was left with the feeling that government dietary recommendations were initially made on the basis of some poor quality research combined with leaps of faith, all in the absence of a complete understanding of what the body does with the various forms of fat we eat. The book doesn't make diet recommendations and doesn't have a meal plan. Although it refers to the Atkins diet, it has to as an exemplar of a diet high fat low carb diet.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What a Great Book!!!
*by C***N on 23 February 2016*

What a great book! About as thorough as you can get, when it comes to the details of how and why the high carb diet is so prominent. A really interesting read, there's so much information packed in to it. For example from, from Chapter 7... "Homer’s “Liquid Gold”? It is reassuring to think that olive oil, with it’s presumed four thousand years of history, must at least be safe, if not beneficial, for human health, perhaps in ways we haven’t managed to capture through scientific studies. Homer called it “liquid gold”, after all. Or did he? Although “liquid gold” appears on lots of websites selling olive oil, the phrase doesn’t appear in any translation of Homer’s Oddysey that I could find. Indeed, the actual passage in the Oddysey says something quite different: Odysseus is given “olive oil in a flask of gold” to anoint himself with. In fact, nowhere in any of the Hellenic texts is there any mention that olive oil was consumed as part of the diet. The oil was ancient, true, but – as it turns out – not as a food; it was employed mainly as a cosmetic, for rubbing over the body during ritual activities and athletic contests or simply to enhance physical beauty among gods and mortals alike. Did the use of olive oil as a food go back much beyond the earlier twentieth century even? Was it the “dominant item of the diet”, going back “at least four thousand years” as Keys claimed? Amazingly, it seems not. “Less than 100 years ago, ordinary people in many parts of Greece ate far less oil than today”, wrote a French historian in 1993. Greek archaeologist Yannis Hamilakis, who has researched the subject extensively, looked at Crete in particular and found that the oil was insignificant as a substance crop before modern times. The amount of olive oil available to the average medieval Cretan peasant for consumption, was in fact, “very low”, and its production expanded only in the mid-seventeenth century, when encouraged by Venetian rulers seeking to respond to a growing industrial demand for the oil – mainly making soap. As Hamilakis concludes, the historical record shows that “despite conventional wisdom, there is almost no evidence which could indicate with certainty” that olive oil was made for “culinary use” in Greece until the nineteenth century. In Spain, too, olive oil did not appear to be consumed in substantial amounts until the 1880’s. And it was apparently the same story in southern Italy, where one scholar found it “doubtful” that olive oil “made a contribution to the diet for over 40 centuries”. An analysis of tree cultivation in southern Italy indicates that olive oil “must have been a scarce commodity until at least the 16th century and… its principal use in medieval times was in religious rituals”. Indeed in historical accounts going back to antiquity, the fat more commonly used in cooking in the Mediterranean, among peasants and the elite alike, was lard. So it seems that olive oil is actually a relatively recent addition to the Mediterranean diet and not an ancient foodstuff, despite the best efforts by interested parties to add Homer to the marketing team." I did a quick search on google for "liquid gold olive oil" and got 847,000 results!!!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you have type2 diabetes, are overweight, have heart disease or want to avoid these, read this book.
*by B***D on 24 January 2023*

A truly excellent book that cuts though the myth about saturated fats and fats in general pushed on the West by the USA. I don’t think I’ll believe anything that comes out of the USA again unless independently corroborated. As a diabetic and recently obese person I can testify that my blood sugar has improved to the point that one of my diabetes medications has become unnecessary and blood glucose continues to improve. Despite discontinuing my statin pills, my blood fats have improved. My blood pressure has improved. My weight has fallen, without any hardship, by 85lbs and is now in the non-obese range. I also feel more energetic, lively and healthy. I now eat very little carbohydrate, plenty of fat, moderate protein. I avoid the seed oils such as sunflower, rapeseed etc though I do use some extra virgin olive oil. Apart from the fat in the meat, eggs, cheese and fish I eat, I use butter, lard, and coconut oil for frying though I by no means fry everything. I highly recommend this book and hope you will do your best to spread the word after reading it.

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*Product available on Desertcart Tunisia*
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*Last updated: 2026-08-24*