Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Diet Cults

  • The Surprising Fallacy at the Core of Nutrition Fads and a Guide to Healthy Eating for the Rest of Us
  • By: Matt Fitzgerald
  • Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
  • Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (102 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Diet Cults cover art

Diet Cults

By: Matt Fitzgerald
Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £17.99

Buy Now for £17.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Zero to Paleo cover art
12 Paleo Myths cover art
The Starch Solution cover art
The End of Dieting cover art
Fasting the Fat Away: A Guide to Intermittent Fasting for Beginners cover art
Think and Grow Vegan cover art
Intermittent Fasting Mastery for Weight Loss cover art
Hungry for Truth cover art
The Complete Guide to Fasting cover art
The Diet Compass cover art
The Dietitian's Dilemma cover art
Eat, Fast, Feast cover art
Spoon-Fed cover art
The Complete Guide to Intermittent Fasting cover art
The 80/10/10 Diet cover art
Diet Recovery cover art

Summary

From the national best-selling author of Racing Weight, Matt Fitzgerald exposes the irrationality, half-truths, and downright impossibility of a "single right way" to eat and reveals how to develop rational, healthy eating habits.

From "the Four-Hour Body" to "Atkins," there are diet cults to match seemingly any mood and personality type. Everywhere we turn, someone is preaching the "one true way" to eat for maximum health. Paleo Diet advocates tell us that all foods less than 12,000 years old are the enemy. Low-carb gurus demonize carbs, and then there are the low-fat prophets. But they agree on one thing: There is only one true way to eat for maximum health. The first clue that this is a fallacy is the sheer variety of diets advocated. Indeed, while all of these competing views claim to be backed by science, a good look at actual nutritional science suggests it is impossible to identify a single best way to eat. Fitzgerald advocates an agnostic, rational approach to eating habits based on one's own habits, lifestyle, and genetics and body type. Many professional athletes already practice this "Good Enough" diet, and now we can too—and ditch the brainwashing of these diet cults for good.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2014 Matt Fitzgerald (P)2014 Blackstone Audiobooks

What listeners say about Diet Cults

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    61
  • 4 Stars
    25
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    56
  • 4 Stars
    24
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    55
  • 4 Stars
    17
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Simply fantastic.

If you could sum up Diet Cults in three words, what would they be?

insightful informative and good humoured

Any additional comments?

This is us excellent book exploring the psychology around food as well as the science and dogma. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

would definitely recommend this book.

very good as a whole. loved the comparison with religions and the open mindness. I would advise to offer this to a friend.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • JB
  • 21-06-23

Speaks the truth, very refreshing

Very enjoyable and informative. Using facts and science to reveal the truth about diets. Worth a listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thank you

Common sense and science instead of hype and snake oil.
Interesting background stories and research put together well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

enjoyable insite

interesting book. was good the author gave background history of we're diets started from. broke each diet down... it felt the author was pro fasting, as he dint really brake that down with negatives. and there are many he could have used.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • L
  • 05-03-15

not bad. not great

narrator was good. content was not to bad. could of been more scientific. I felt allot of the book was padding to get to the final three chapters. only a few instating points made earlier in the book with human adaptability.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Offensive

I was astonished about some of the views expressed by the author in this book. In the first chapter I was shocked to hear the author speak with distain about the group he dubbed fat-salt-sweet who "pay a heavy price for their unrestrained pleasure eating...getting fat, looking terrible, being woefully out of shape, aging quickly, becoming diabetic, developing heart disease, and dying young"

He went on to say in the 2nd chapter "By no means am I suggesting that human beings can eat whatever they please without suffering negative heath consequences....you can see this for yourself by peeking inside your local McDonalds during the noon rush and observing the shapes and sizes of the people eating there. "

At that point I switched the book off having no desire to listen to any more of his awful and offensive views!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

You've already read this too many times

I was barely halfway through the first chapter when I began to roll my eyes. I had sincerely hoped for a nuanced and interesting deepdive into the weightloss/wellness/diet industry and its origins, iterations and future. No such luck.

Just another book, like many before and after it, that doesn't do any heavy lifting of actually exploring "diet cults" in a meaningful way and instead serves as yet another manual on how to eat according to the authors opinion. A recurring theme seems to be "We don't know this for sure, but it seems a safe bet that....".

Take a quick look at the PDF which comes with the book if you want a condensed version of the authors views on food: Fruit and veg good. Junk bad. Drinking beer/wine every day of the week is fine(?).

Definitely wouldn't recommend this book if you are a person with/who has a history of disordered eating or who is working to build a positive relationship with food and/or your body, the book wastes no time in jumping straight into the same tired fatphobic ideas we've seen too many times before.

Performance is fine.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Unnecessarily offensive

I couldn't even finish chapter one before turning this off. There are so many assertions and (as the author admits) speculations linking health and weight/body type that are not supported by science, including a lot of vulgar opinions about fat people that are not necessary in a book about eating. Within the first 9 minutes the author gives this opinion: "pleasure eating leads to woeful consequences such as getting fat, looking terrible.... and dying young." They then proceed to use this description as something other types of eaters should fear. I imagine this book would be interesting minus the author's outdated opinions but I don't want to read on to find out. I'm really disappointed, will be returning this title ASAP.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful