Why Women Need Fat?

So a former assistant surgeon general and a professor of anthropology meet at a bar and what do you get? William Lassek M.D. and Steven Gaulin, Ph.D. didn’t meet at a bar, but rather in a class Dr. Gaulin was teaching on, Sex and Evolution, that Dr. Lassek decided to take for fun. They originally teamed up in 2007 to research the attractiveness of women (sounds like hard work) and eventually wrote “Why Women Need Fat”. 

I was a little skeptical of this book at first thinking it was going to be another trendy diet book a la South Beach Diet or Adkins where you have different phases, etc. I was not only pleasantly surprised that it really wasn’t a diet book, I was fascinated as the book discusses the evolution of women’s weight and why men prefer different body types. 

Men are drawn to women with tiny waists and larger hips because we bank DHA and Omega 3 fats in our hips and thighs. These nutrients are essential to the production of healthy children. At the same time a larger waist can indicate to a man on a primal level that a women is either older or may have already birthed a child. 

Evolution aside, the heart of the book is that, the inexpensive production of corn and soybeans that are so readily available cause Americans to consume way to many Omega-6 fats and not enough Omega-3 fats. The secret to losing weight is to cut back on Omega-6 fats, which are found in everything from potato chips, meats (because of their diet high in corn and soy), to popcorn popped in oil. 

The theories presented in this book not only made sense, but they were fascinating to read. While I won’t be banning Omega-6 fats from my diet I will definitely do my best to cut back while upping my Omega-3 fats. That and I am now really regretting never taking an anthropology class when I was in college. 

Feel free to join me at the Blog Her Book Club Discussion. We’ll be talking about this book for the next few weeks. 

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are entirely my own.