Obesity and the Regulation of Weight

red meat in our kitchen (for the first time?) - _MG_4181
Originally uploaded by sean dreilinger

I finally powered through and finished Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. After two long parts discussing high-fat/low-carb vs. low-fat/high-carb, this part got down to the nuts and bolts of dieting and losing weight. It takes aim at busting two of the common mantras of weight loss: "Calories In, Calories Out" and "A Calories is a Calories is a Calories." The late, great Dr. Atkins is also discussed in length including the tragic story of how he was ostricized by the medical community for daring to preach anything but low-fat/high-carb.

What I found most interesting was the story of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, who ate nothing but meat for one year and emerged perfectly healthy. He did it to prove to scientists what he learned from the Inuit (indigenous people living in the arctic regions of Alaska, Greenland, and Canada) -- you can live perfectly well on nothing but meat.

The Inuit considered vegetables and fruit "not proper human food," Stefansson wrote, but they occasionnally ate the roots of the knotweed plant in times of dire necessity."

In the end, I was disappointed by the lack of conclusions drawn by the book, but that wasn't the author's fault. He points out that no research has been done to positively prove whether or not a low-carb diet is the best way to eat and he hopes that his book will inspire that research to be done. Personally, I've been doing amazingly well on Atkins Introduction and the information in this book has only affirmed that what I'm doing is not only safe, but good for me.

The Carbohydrate Hypothesis

No Bread Today
Originally uploaded by Mr. Guybrarian

Today I finished the second part of Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories and I must say that this book continued to hurt my head. As I warned before, the discussion is full of dense scientific research and history. On top of that, it astounds me how much good science has been ignored or disregarded because it doesn't conform to the low-fat mantra.

Essentially, the carbohydrate hypothesis states that it is carbohydrates that cause the diseases of civilization -- obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some forms of cancer. Refined carbs, like polished rice, white flour and white sugar, were pointed out as some of the more dangerous ingredients but high-fructose corn syrup also made the list.

In this hypothesis, it is the quality of the calories consumed that regulates weight, and the quantity--more calories consumed than expended--is a second phenomenon

In summary, part one of the book was "this is why everything you know is wrong" and part two was "this is why everything you don't know is right." The third part of the book promises to discuss weight loss and I'm hoping some sort of recommendations will be made there. There is a lot of information presented for the author not to provide a summary and conclusion.

The Fat-Cholesterol Hypothesis

calorie box
Originally uploaded by lou tamposi

For Christmas, my grandmother got me a copy of Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. I've been reading a little bit each day since then and I just finished the first section. Normally I read faster than this, but this book is very dense. It is literally page after page of the author reviewing and discussing health studies. While the information provided is itself very interesting, after about one chapter, my brain protests and I can't focus on it any more.

The prologue of the book, A Brief History of Banting discusses what is believed to be the first published low-carb diet, Letter on Corpulence by William Banting. Published in 1869, Banting's letter discusses how he suffered from obesity in his later years and a low-fat diet mixed with exercise only left him hungry and in poorer health. Eventually he adopted a low-carb diet and lost the weight.

The first four chapters of the book are grouped together in a section called The Fat-Cholesterol Hypothesis. The primary focus of this part of the book is to discuss the commonly held belief that eating low-fat, low-cholesterol foods lowers your blood cholesterol levels and in turn helps prevent heart disease. Taubes asserts that this hypothesis is based on selective antedotal evidence and runs contrary to the results of what few good studies have been conducted. In 2001, the Cochrane Collaration combed the literature fro all possibly relevant studies and published a review of "reduced or modified dietary fat for preventing cardiovascular disease."

The review concluded that the diets, whether low-fat or cholesterol-lower, had no effect on longevity and not even a "significant effect on cardiovascular events."

All in all, I'd recommend this book to anyone looking to expand their knowledge of nutrition. I will warn you that this isn't a diet book -- the author doesn't prescribe a specific dietary plan, but it is clear that he is a proponent of the low-carb lifestyle.