Got to the end, with some mild exasperation with the author. No wonder they struggled. They were trying to eat Healthy Pyramid, the oxymoron.

I know he felt an obligation to extend the usual health advice about eating, but not a word about low carbing. That is not news, but discouraging. This is a celebrated science writer. He's getting the official word. He doesn't know it's wrong.

The book concludes with news of how Japan incorporated teaching and environmental support so their children learn how to eat healthfully. The supermarkets are 90% fresh food. The food carts in the streets follow the same precepts as the fine restaurants. There is no junk.

They created an environment which supports eating real food.

The author is persuaded that his two weeks in Japan showed the way, but he still cannot commit to a whole food 30. So he takes the drug. He's aware of muscle risks and trying to make this a transition period. And a lifetime drug? When the insurance company wants you off it as soon as possible? How is this going to be achieved, then?

The book does point out that the same struggle was waged over cigarettes and we're successfully transitioning to a smoke-free culture throughout the world.

Personally, I would come away with a sense of confusion. I'd likely feel the same way -- that I was helpless trying to lose weight in the conventional way. Yet I would say low carb/keto/carnivore has the lowest rate of dropouts. The highest rate of success.

But still, no one is talking about that. The author would do better to turn his sense of food inside out and upside down. And so should the overweight teen whose whole family turned vegan and are paying for the drugs out of pocket. The weight is coming off. The health benefits appear.

But vegan is not a long term solution, either.

In the end, I was more skeptical than ever. I wish them all the luck. Because these drugs are turning into just another addictive substance. Fear of that appetite roaring back makes them pay for the drug out of pocket.

But if you want to know why the typical person who does try to keep up and take care of themselves are getting a boulder to roll up that hill if they keep using the same wrong thesis - the 7 country's study -- when they won't admit that is what they are still doing.

The weight of jiggered evidence kills such nice, well-meaning, people. And I look like the nut. I'm used to it, but it's also ridiculous.