Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage)
Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage)
For decades we have been taught that fat is bad for us, carbohydrates better, and that the key to a healthy weight is eating less and exercising more. Yet despite this advice, we have seen unprecedented epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Taubes argues that the problem lies in refined carbohydrates, like white flour, easily digested starches, and sugars, and that the key to good health is the kind of calories we take in, not the number. In this groundbreaking book, award-winning science writer Gary Taubes shows us that almost everything we believe about the nature of a healthy diet is wrong.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Great detailed book
If you ever wondered why although you religiously followed a diet based on what the experts now a days consider healthy but had a negative experience in the process then this book is for you. It is extremely detailed and shows you what has been proven, what is probably true, and what is pure speculation when it comes to nutrition.
After reading the 400 or so pages of this book and trying a low-carbohydrate diet for myself with successful results things finally make sense. My skin improved, with red spots and zits I had virtually disappearing. Diarrhea, constipation, and stomach aches are a thing of the past. Also, I have much better energy levels (I became one of those people that are always active running around all day long but seemingly don’t get tired)
On the other hand, my mom exercised every day, she only cooked with the heart healthy Canola oil, and most of her diet was based on vegetables, fruits, brown rice, and brown bread. She also ate fish once a week for omega-3. Well… She was diagnosed with colon cancer and was told to eliminate all fat from her diet. That didn’t help, and she died two years later. I came to believe that this disease was something unpreventable and that my mom just had bad genes, and I probably did too.
My dad, runs 4-6 miles 3 times a week. He also participates in at least one Marathon once a year. He ate the same diet my mom did. Somehow, he never could rid himself of the extra fat on his belly. He was told that his cholesterol levels were dangerously high and advised to eat more of the diet that he already did. He has since switched to skim milk and skim cheese, with his cholesterol getting even worse.
Non of this made sense at the time. Now things finally make sense and I have convinced my dad to switch diets. If you care about your health and your family’s health then this book may just save your life.
1 Stars A review from a real nutritionist
Taubes uses ridiculous comparisons and unfounded statements. Want to know what really works? How people recover from cancer? Check out Hallelujah Acres. And for real nutritional science look at The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD, which includes the largest nutritional study ever accomplished–880 million people!
1 Stars Very dry and tedious read
I was so looking forward to this book, but when I started reading it, I couldn’t pay attention. It’s a very dry and scientific read. Way Way too much info. I wish he had focused more on the facts than a bunch of flowery scientific mumbo jumbo. Despite all the rave reviews, I would not recommend this book.
5 Stars Short and un-sweetened…
(My review, that is. Not the book - it’s hardly short!)
This is quite possibly the most important book I have ever read.
Draw your own conclusions about all this diet and nutrition stuff, but do so after learning all you can, including what Taubes covers in his book.
Love it, hate it - either way, you should at least read it.
5 Stars Good Calories, Bad Calories and Cereal Killer
This review offers a comparison of Gary Taubes’ Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom of Diet, Weight Control, and Disease, and Alan Watson’s Cereal Killer: The Unintended Consequences of the Low Fat Diet. The primary thesis of both books is that the established health advice of the last few decades–avoid fats in favor of carbohydrates–is wrong. Both cite ample evidence that we should depend on diets that are relatively higher in fats, and relatively lower in carbohydrates, especially the highly refined carbohydrates including sugars. Both single out a particular sweetener, high fructose corn syrup, for special avoidance. Both question the value of today’s preoccupation with cholesterol. Both authors have spent years researching the topic, and while their positions are congruent, there are a number of interesting differences.
Gary Taubes, in Good Calories, Bad Calories, traces the historical development of the recommended low fat diet and the carbohydrate-heavy food pyramid. Rather than lambasting the process by which our nutrition advice went so awry, he dispassionately traces, in incredible depth, the medical studies, people, organizations, and events that led to this situation. In so doing, he built credibility with me. Considering the well-documented sequence of events and influences, it became convincing that the organizations we respect for guidance actually got it quite wrong. However, I found the convoluted and voluminous detail to be excruciating; the book goes 453 pages before it provides us with Taubes’ well-reasoned conclusions. But, it was certainly worth the effort to read, and it provided me with new information. For example, a) weight gain or loss is not determined primarily by total calorie intake vs. calorie expenditure, or b) while the glycemic index is widely respected as an indicator of the metabolic impact of carbohydrates, fructose does not register on that scale.
I think of Alan Watson’s very inviting and easy-to-read 144-page Cereal Killer as a handbook. Both authors address a gamut of health issues, but Watson centers on cardiovascular health while Taubes spends more time on weight gain and obesity. Watson’s style is brief and to the point. His succinct review of fats, a complex subject, seems exceptionally understandable. Bulleted lists are presented in place of paragraphs of prose. Each chapter ends with a friendly “More to Explore…” section that provides helpful suggestions for further reading. A sprinkling of photos–of the Watson family, cows, and such–give it a pleasant and homespun quality. Cereal Killer goes beyond the narrow focus on carbohydrates vs. fats, to other related topics, such as grass-fed beef, and lard, but it left me wondering whether these topics were as well-supported by clinical studies as the fundamental carbohydrate vs. fat issue. Throughout, this book is a model of clarity and conciseness while presenting valuable information about which the author is passionate.
One of Gary Taubes’ excellent New York Times articles was titled: “Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy?” I have to conclude that we may not, and that these books provide important challenges to the conventional health wisdom that can help bring us closer to that knowledge. I highly recommend reading both and keeping them within easy reach on your bookshelf.
Filed under: Weight Loss Book Reviews
