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Comment by cschmidt | Hacker News Reader

If you're interested, the book Big Fat Surprise talks a great deal about how fat (other than trans fat) isn't bad for you.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Big-Fat-Surprise-Healthy/dp/145162...

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I also recommend reading Gary Taubes' Why We Get Fat: http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259

This book is kind of a joke among people who are seriously interested in nutrition. There is some decent information in there, and the research Taubes is doing now actually seems like it might be pretty good, but the book has some really bad conclusions that are not supported by science. It's a good intro book, but take it with a big grain of salt.

Interesting. What do the serious nutrition folk recommend? (Also if there's anything specific for skinny low-appetite folk...)

It really depends on your goals and what you are looking to learn. It sounds like maybe you are trying to put on weight, in which case I can't recommend whole milk enough :) But if you want to be more specific about what you'd like to learn I can recommend some resources.

Gaining weight is a part of it, but I'm also curious about understanding things like, the relationship between low blood sugar and brain function, low blood sugar and sleep, stuff like that. Will be happy with anything you can point me to, thanks so much!

Sorry I took so long to get back to you. The stuff you are talking about is very complicated, and short of recommending you go read a bunch of textbooks front to back, I'd suggest just starting with some basic nutrition to get a foundation there, before getting into stuff like blood sugar + brain function.

This article will give you a good primer on nutrition with a focus on gaining weight:

http://www.barbellmedicine.com/potpourri/584/

If you have any other specific question I'd be happy to chat through them but HN is probably not the best venue. My contact info is in my profile, I love talking about this stuff so feel free to reach out.

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