Good Calories, Bad Calories | Gary Taubes | STOP STIMULATING YOUR INSULIN!

Good Calories, Bad Calories | Gary Taubes | This book motivated me to look for myself....

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Good Calories, Bad...

	Good Calories, Bad Calories Gary Taubes Knopf, 2007 - 640 pages average customer review:based on 174 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In this groundbreaking book, the result of seven years of research in every science connected with the impact of nutrition on health, award-winning science writer Gary Taubes shows us that almost everything we believe about the nature of a healthy diet is wrong.

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 with more and more people acting on this advice, we have seen unprecedented epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Taubes argues persuasively that the problem lies in refined carbohydrates (white flour, sugar, easily digested starches) and sugars?via their dramatic and longterm effects on insulin, the hormone that regulates fat accumulation?and that the key to good health is the kind of calories we take in, not the number. There are good calories, and bad ones.

Good Calories
These are from foods without easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars. These foods can be eaten without restraint.
Meat, fish, fowl, cheese, eggs, butter, and non-starchy vegetables.

Bad Calories
These are from foods that stimulate excessive insulin secretion and so make us fat and increase our risk of chronic disease?all refined and easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars. The key is not how much vitamins and minerals they contain, but how quickly they are digested. (So apple juice or even green vegetable juices are not necessarily any healthier than soda.)
Bread and other baked goods, potatoes, yams, rice, pasta, cereal grains, corn, sugar (sucrose and high fructose corn syrup), ice cream, candy, soft drinks, fruit juices, bananas and other tropical fruits, and beer.

Taubes traces how the common assumption that carbohydrates are fattening was abandoned in the 1960s when fat and cholesterol were blamed for heart disease and then ?wrongly?were seen as the causes of a host of other maladies, including cancer. He shows us how these unproven hypotheses were emphatically embraced by authorities in nutrition, public health, and clinical medicine, in spite of how well-conceived clinical trials have consistently refuted them. He also documents the dietary trials of carbohydrate-restriction, which consistently show that the fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.

With precise references to the most significant existing clinical studies, he convinces us that there is no compelling scientific evidence demonstrating that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease, that salt causes high blood pressure, and that fiber is a necessary part of a healthy diet. Based on the evidence that does exist, he leads us to conclude that the only healthy way to lose weight and remain lean is to eat fewer carbohydrates or to change the type of the carbohydrates we do eat, and, for some of us, perhaps to eat virtually none at all.

The 11 Critical Conclusions of Good Calories, Bad Calories:

1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, does not cause heart disease.
2. Carbohydrates do, because of their effect on the hormone insulin. The more easily-digestible and refined the carbohydrates and the more fructose they contain, the greater the effect on our health, weight, and well-being.
3. Sugars?sucrose (table sugar) and high fructose corn syrup specifically?are particularly harmful. The glucose in these sugars raises insulin levels; the fructose they contain overloads the liver.
4. Refined carbohydrates, starches, and sugars are also the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer?s Disease, and the other common chronic diseases of modern times.
5. Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating and not sedentary behavior.
6. Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter any more than it causes a child to grow taller.
7. Exercise does not make us lose excess fat; it makes us hungry.
8. We get fat because of an imbalance?a disequilibrium?in the hormonal regulation of fat tissue and fat metabolism. More fat is stored in the fat tissue than is mobilized and used for fuel. We become leaner when the hormonal regulation of the fat tissue reverses this imbalance.
9. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage. When insulin levels are elevated, we stockpile calories as fat. When insulin levels fall, we release fat from our fat tissue and burn it for fuel.
10. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.
11. The fewer carbohydrates we eat, the leaner we will be.

Good Calories, Bad Calories is a tour de force of scientific investigation?certain to redefine the ongoing debate about the foods we eat and their effects on our health.

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STOP STIMULATING YOUR INSULIN!

Thank you for exposing much of what goes on in science. This book is filled with valuable information obviously painstakingly researched. The author illuminates what has transpired in nutrition research, which is a reflection of what occurs in just about every other field: a theory develops and many other scientists, nutritionists, and "experts" jump on the bandwagon.

In this book, the author makes certain arguments and backs them with research. One of his points is that we gain weight when we eat foods (sugars and carbs) that elevate insulin, and we lose weight when we avoid these foods and allow our insulin levels to fall. It is not the calories we eat that make us fat, but the accumulation of fat which occurs when we stimulate insulin secretion by eating carbohydrates and sugars. Therefore, when insulin levels rise, we accumulate fat, and when insulin levels fall, we release fat from fat tissue and burn it for fuel. He also says that many diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease are caused by the effects of eating carbohydrates due of their impact on insulin levels. He says that simple sugars (sucrose, fructose, and high fructose corn syrup) are especially harmful. He also points out that exercise does not make you lose fat.

This book is well-researched and worth reading. Even if you do not strictly follow the book's recommendations, there is much useful information in this book. I also recommend a possible companion book THE 3:00 PM SECRET: Live Slim and Strong, Live Your Dreams.

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This book motivated me to look for myself....

This book was a real eye-opener for me. I highly recommend it. It is tough to be told that you have been mislead by people you trusted. It's even harder to accept that what you have been eating to improve your health has been causing your problems; and even harder to believe that the food you were told not to eat is exactly what you need to eat to be healthy.

So I was very curious to see if Gary Taubes was correct about scientists in nutrition being less than forthright with their datasets. I found a copy of the China Diet Study (Dr. T. Colin Campbell) and analyzed the dataset for myself (http://www.ctsu.ox.ac.uk/~china/monograph/chdata.htm).

I correlated Body Mass Index (BMI) to diet. I found that animal protein and animal fat correlated to lower BMI, and vegetable oil, starch and sugar correlated to higher BMI. (The worst offender was wheat flour). I also checked heart disease and stroke; and found basically the same result. The data supported Taubes' thesis 100%.

This dataset from China has nothing to do with Gary's book other than to serve as an independent check on his conclusions. Using this dataset I personally verified (to my satisfaction) Taubes' point that what the scientist's tell us about our diets is just plain unreliable; and specifically verified that eating a diet of meat and vegetables will both lower your weight and suppress heart disease.

Taubes' book is worth reading if you want to find the truth of the matter yourself. The extensive reference list is highly "internet friendly", enabling you to check and follow up on any detail of specific interest. He isn't preaching at you, trying to convert you to his diet plan. His book teaches, with an entertaining emphasis that highlights the disparities between what we have been led to believe vs what the experts actually knew (and when they knew it).

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Very informative

Unbelievably rich with convincing information about the evils of carbohydrates. It is a bit think with scientific jargon but learning it is quick. As a self-proclaimed "foodie," I found some of the information about carbs depressing but I'm so glad I read this while I'm still young and can make adjustments to my diet.

Bad Science/Bad Food

The text is not an easy read, given the plethora of research citations.
I found it helpful to read the prologue and epilogue prior to reading
the meat and potatoes between the two. Taubes'conclusions appear to
reflect his review of the relevant literature on the subject. If you
accept his conclusions your food choices would change, unless you have
been following Atkins already. I feel the book is a must read for
anyone concerned about food consumption and its impact upon health.
It is not a diet book per se, but rather an examination of research,
good and bad, on the effects of ingesting varied food products.

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