The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War, by Ben Macintyre

Category: Non-fiction; Rating: 3 out of 5; Tags: Cold War, KGB, History, Soviet Union, Spies

Oleg Gordievsky was a KGB spy. Disillusioned by the construction of the Berlin wall and by the limitations of life under the Soviet leadership, he was open to the idea when he was approached by the British about the possibility of spying for them. For around four years in the mid-seventies, while posted to Copenhagen, Gordievsky met regularly with MI6, passing along reams of intelligence. Then he was recalled to Moscow, and the relationship went dormant. It was reactivated in the early eighties, when Gordievsky won a posting to London.

These were tense times; the Soviet Union was paranoid and convinced the west was about to launch a nuclear first strike. Gordievsky played an important role, telling the British what the KGB was planning and how they operated. When Gorbachev came to power, Gordievsky provided advice about the best way deal with him, helping to make the meetings between Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher go smoothly. Through Gordievsky, each side was able to provide honest feedback about what the other was thinking. He wasn’t solely responsible for ending the cold war, but he helped.

Macintyre reveals the inner workings of the KGB and British spy agencies, and also provides lots of details about the lives of the people involved, fleshing out the human side of the story. There are wacky secret spy signals, like leaving a wad of chewing gum on a certain post to indicate there’s a message to deliver. And there’s a risky escape plan to get Gordievsky out of Moscow if he is ever suspected by the KGB, starting with him signalling that he needs help by standing on a certain corner, wearing certain clothes and carrying a certain bag. A lot more has to go right for the plan to succeed, and MI6 always hoped they’d never have to use it. I’m not usually a fan of spy stories, but this is a good one.

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The Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally, by Dr. Jason Fung

Category: Non-fiction; Rating: 3 out of 5; Tags: Diabetes, Diet, Health

Several books have come out in recent years, all saying essentially the same thing: the conventional wisdom about what constitutes a healthy diet has been wrong for decades. That conventional wisdom advocated a low-fat diet to reduce obesity and the risk of heart disease and stroke, which would have been OK if people had substituted those fats with vegetables. Instead, they were told that carbohydrates were healthy, and were encouraged to eat bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. Left hungry from the lack of fat, they also indulged in sweets – cookies, cakes, muffins, pie and ice cream. Nobody was saying that all that sugar was healthy, but the negative effects of the refined carbohydrates were underappreciated.

Seeing the failure in his own practice of the recommended treatment for type 2 diabetes, Dr. Fung began to wonder if there was a flaw in the understanding of the disease. Instead of treating patients with higher and higher doses of insulin (which successfully lowered blood sugar but was otherwise unhelpful), he started recommending dietary changes. Avoiding refined sugars and processed carbohydrates, and eating fats from animals, nuts, fish and vegetables, led to significant health benefits. Type 2 diabetes, a supposedly chronic, progressive disease, was reversed.

For some, a change in diet was not enough, so in addition he recommended intermittent fasting. Patients either fasted for 30 to 36 hours twice a week, or for 16 hours five times a week.

It’s great to see a doctor recommend diet and lifestyle changes instead of immediately resorting to drugs.

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