Does eating more carbohydrates, or fats, cause one to put on more weight? Are ketone bodies toxins or vital products that keep us alive during starvation? Does the concept of 'fat-burning exercise' hold true? In this game-changing book, Keith Frayn, an international expert in human metabolism and nutrition, dispels common misconceptions about human metabolism, explaining in everyday language the important metabolic processes that underlie all aspects of our daily lives. Illustrated throughout with clear diagrams of metabolic processes, Frayn describes the communication systems that enable our different organs and tissues to cooperate, for instance in providing fuel to our muscles when we exercise, and in preserving our tissues during fasting. He explores the impressive adaptability of human metabolism and discusses the metabolic disorders that can arise when metabolism 'goes wrong'. For anyone sceptical of information about diet and lifestyle, this concise book guides the reader through what metabolism really involves.

‘Are you interested in your health and want to understand how your body functions? Do you want to learn the science behind how food and exercise interact and how together they can both foster wellbeing or lead to poor health and disease? This, and all you need to know about the key role of human metabolism for health and disease, is what Understanding Human Metabolism gives you. The author, Professor Keith Frayn, is probably the best teacher of human metabolism and nutrition of our times and has published several superb books on the topic for students of medicine and nutrition. This time, I would like to congratulate anyone without medical training but with an interest in human metabolism - this is the book for you.’

Olle Ljungqvist - Professor of Surgery, Örebro University and Affiliated Professor of Surgery, Nutrition and Metabolism, Karolinska Institute, Sweden

‘Insightful, objective, easy reading. Nutritional biochemistry and metabolism in the right measure.’

Teresa H. M. da Costa - Department of Nutrition, University of Brasília, Brazil

‘Everyone has a metabolism, and most people have a folk understanding of it. This very clear account of this actually complex subject brings science to bear on such understandings. Reading it will help you understand yourself better.’

Stanley Ulijaszek - Professor of Human Ecology, University of Oxford, UK