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Good Calories, Bad Calories

4.2 of 5 stars 4.20 · rating details · 2,520 ratings · 415 reviews

Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight, and Disease

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 f...more Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight, and Disease

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.

From the Hardcover edition.(less)

Paperback, 609 pages

Published September 23rd 2008 by Anchor (first published September 2007)

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Aug 02, 2008 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: health, important, science

It is fitting that I finished this book while descending for landing over Newark airport in the middle of intense turbulence. It was the airsickness that the turbulent descent caused that I consider fitting. The sickening feeling one is left with after reading this book is similar: it starts slowly, it rises almost imperceptibly, but eventually, it seizes you almost entirely and renders you incapable of perceiving anything else.

Such is Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, a book of such s...more It is fitting that I finished this book while descending for landing over Newark airport in the middle of intense turbulence. It was the airsickness that the turbulent descent caused that I consider fitting. The sickening feeling one is left with after reading this book is similar: it starts slowly, it rises almost imperceptibly, but eventually, it seizes you almost entirely and renders you incapable of perceiving anything else.

Such is Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, a book of such significance that it shakes you where you sit. And though it will make you sick to read it, it will make you sick in all the right ways and for all the right reasons. It can only be hoped that it will also lead you to make all the right changes in your personal health worldview because nearly everything you believe about what you eat is wrong.

That’s the power of this book, its ability to mercilessly unearth issues you thought long ago resolved and buried. “Fat people are fat because they overeat and don’t exercise enough.” “Eating meat will cause heart disease.” “A low-fat diet will reduce your cholesterol.” These are just samples of the things you believe today that, in Taubes’ painfully thorough hands, you will come to find have not only never been verified through experimental studies in animals or humans, but actually contradict the combined evidence of over a century of research.

Taubes’s approach is exhausting. He is so thorough – 601 pages attest to this – as to scare away anyone without a basic comfort in health science. Though this is a shame, it is a necessary one, made so because the author hopes to avoid the many sins he enumerates among the researchers he chronicles who have so often selectively favored the slight evidence that supported their hypotheses and ignored evidence that contradicted their sincere beliefs. The result is an absolutely dizzying array of studies and references – the bibliography reaches 65 pages in length – that you must not only be led through but which you have to be able to retain in memory over many chapters because they will necessarily re-emerge later on.

It would be impossible to summarize his conclusions in this review for the same reason. However, there are three observations that one can abstract from the many stories and multiple health studies he weaves together: 1) The specialization of all scientific disciplines leaves each discipline with a partial, and often incorrect view of the whole; 2) Scientists often become so persuaded of the validity of their hypotheses that they stop looking for any evidence that would contradict it, and in fact, rationalize or simply ignore such evidence, even when collected by their own hands; and 3) Many studies in this area are flawed because they are designed under the assumption that the causality of the variables involved (meaning which thing controls which thing) is already understood.

(Perhaps more detail on #3 is warranted. One of the most poignant examples in the book came from an interview with a scientist who believed in the “law of thermodynamics” as it applies to obesity, which led him to conclude – and nearly all of us along with him – that fat people are fat because they eat too much and are lazy. When his own research demonstrated that the calorie intake of fat people was not related to their weight gain, he avoided this evidence by deciding that fat people may not eat too much but being lazy is enough to make them fat. His evidence? We should all just sit in an airport and take note of the fact that the lean people walk while the fat people take the escalators and moving walkways. This is particularly appalling because not only is his experience in an airport not a controlled scientific study, but also because his hypothesis that fat people are lazy is one explanation of why obese people prefer the moving walkways. An equally likely explanation of the same behavior is that it’s harder for the obese to walk than it is to ride. In essence, the scientist assumed causality went one way: lazy => fat, yet there is no reason other than personal dogmatic insistence on a particular view not to consider an equally rational direction for causality: fat=>”lazy” where lazy is defined as taking an escalator when one is offered. This is a radical rethink of our personal assumptions, and if there were no evidence to further strengthen this alternative hypothesis, then we would be forced to conclude that lazy=> fat. However, the evidence points almost completely the other way, as Taubes shows.)

By the first 50 pages I realized I had found a unique book. The opening is spectacularly engaging because it draws on historical examples and evidences such as the heart attack of President Eisenhower and his unsuccessful attempts to reduce his cholesterol though he ate almost no fat after that. It makes for good journalistic writing. However, once it gets through the engaging niceties, the book reveals itself as the disciplined scientific literature review it truly is, appropriate historical anecdotes mingled in to give the reader an occasional break. By the end of that first day, I resolved to begin restricting my carbohydrates immediately, though I hoped I would more fully understand my decision by the end of the book. That was ten days ago. In the intervening days I have lost 8 pounds. Fully aware that this could just be the result of a new enthusiasm for this diet, I decided early on not to confound my results by exercising or by cutting back my calories. Instead, I have used my few free mornings for writing, and yes, reading more of Good Calories, Bad Calories. Additionally, I have given myself license not only to eat whatever fat and protein I want, I have consciously tried to overeat both. Four pieces of bacon, an egg, a 4-carb cracker smeared with a thick layer of cream cheese and topped with pancetta – they are all not strangers to me. I have steak for dinner when possible, and eat sausages of all sorts. I regularly dine on cheese whenever I feel hungry, and I go through peanuts as though they were going out of style. To make my experiment complete, I should be cataloging this intake, but suffice it to say I am not only not hungry, I am stuffed.

Interestingly, this book contains no diet at all, a fact that Taubes’s editors must have pointed out, leading to the epilogue which summarizes all his conclusions and comes close to recommending specific diet steps. It’s not actually his goal to change how you eat, rather to change how scientists and researchers approach the important questions of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, each of which is reaching epidemic proportions, despite our public obsession with all things low-fat. This is another reason why the book is so credible. Not only is the author pedigreed as a science journalist (a correspondent for Science, a magazine that has more in common with a scholarly journal than with Newsweek); and not only is the book astonishingly well researched and documented; but the author hasn’t (yet) produced a diet handbook to make himself rich. This last fact is significant and something that Atkins couldn’t say (and for which the research establishment ridiculed him) and something that health researchers receiving million dollar grants from refined carbohydrate producers like Procter & Gamble, M&M/Mars or Post also can’t say.

My advice: read the book, think through the logic, and perform a personal test. As one friend with high blood pressure and high cholesterol who experimented with a low-carb diet explained to me: “My doctor is very bothered by my results – I am eating fat all the time, I practically can’t have a glass of water without putting a pork chop in it – but my lab tests are coming back healthier and cleaner than my doctor has ever seen them.” I imagine that upon seeing these counterintuitive results the doctor felt a sickening feeling similar to airsickness. It is disconcerting, even sickening for a doctor to find that everything he believed – and everything he recommended to his patients – was based on faulty assumptions never proven by science yet perpetuated by every expert panel and official report. That’s a sick feeling I know and one that may well make us all well if we heed it.

-- Update, August 2008. I'm at 198 pounds, a loss of 20 pounds, and still dropping weight, without exercise and without restricting calories(less)

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Oct 16, 2007 Dianne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone with weight or other health issues

This book is like the Copernican Revolution of diet advice: reverse one key assumption, and suddenly all the evidence that didn't fit the previous hypothesis suddenly makes sense. Taubes suggests that we've mixed up cause and effect: we don't get fat because we eat too many calories and don't get enough exercise. It's the other way around: we eat too many calories and don't have the energy to exercise because we're fat. That is to say, obesity is a medical condition caused by our body channeling...more

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Nov 11, 2007 Richard's Bibby rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: General publix

I had thought about the theme of this book for awhile -- what explicit scientific research supports our knowledge of nutrition. Taube answers these questions particularly in his contention that refined carbohydrates lead to a myriad of "diseases of civilization". What differentiates this book from the endless advice of health magazines, doctors and pop nutritionists is the specific scientific studies he uses in the construction of his argument and the historical research concerning how our curre...more

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Mar 02, 2009 Belinda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Holy RESEARCH, Batman. Wow. It seems like Gary Taubes maybe took a lot of guff after his controversial piece in the New York Times, and decided to just let all his critics have it by burying them in tons and tons of data.

I have read about low-carb diets before, but nothing really convincing (to me, anyway, because I loves my bread). This 600+ page whopper really drives the point home that of all the variables in our diets, the one thing that affects the most change when it's reduced, increased,...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Philip Mcclarty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Taubes is an unbelievable researcher. Obviously with any book quoting studies, data and conclusions can be manipulated, however his ability to pull examples and studies from many different disciplines and time periods have thoroughly convinced me that sugar in more than small amounts is very, very bad.....tobacco smoking bad.....at least when is comes to chronic disease. It also convinced me to substitue fat calories for sugar/carb calories. I have lost 15 lbs so far and feel great.....just from...more

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Jan 16, 2008 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone interested in how what we eat affects our bodies.

This is by no means an "easy read" nor an easy argument. Taubes reviews the scientific literature relating to diet, obsesity and chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. He tells us why the recent focus on low-fat, high carbohydrate diets is not based on credible scientific evidence. The argument has been that high fat diets cause heart disease. Taubes argues that consuming sugar and refined carbohydrates causes the body to produce excessive insulin which causes fat retention. This h...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Jeff Van Campen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: health-and-fitness

I read Good Calories, Bad Calories over several months. This book is incredibly well researched (Gary Taubes says he's spent over fifteen years researching the book), and very well written.

It examines the science behind the "carbohydrate hypothesis." The hypothesis is that excess carbohydrate consumption, specifically sugar, high fructose corn syrup and other refined carbohydrates (e.g. white bread and white rice) is behind the rise in obesity over the last twenty years.

In order to make this ar...more I read Good Calories, Bad Calories over several months. This book is incredibly well researched (Gary Taubes says he's spent over fifteen years researching the book), and very well written.

It examines the science behind the "carbohydrate hypothesis." The hypothesis is that excess carbohydrate consumption, specifically sugar, high fructose corn syrup and other refined carbohydrates (e.g. white bread and white rice) is behind the rise in obesity over the last twenty years.

In order to make this argument, Taubes shows how he thinks public health officials got it wrong, leading them to effectively recommend that we eat more carbohydrates (we're replacing the fat we stopped eating with something, usually carbohydrates). This is perhaps the most fascinating part of the book. Taubes documents how a hypothesis (fat raises cholesterol causes heart disease and obesity) that was based primarily on epidemiological studies became the basis of the recommended diet in the United States (and elsewhere in the world). In the tale that Taubes tells, this wasn't because this hypothesis was rigorously tested. The studies designed to test the cholesterol hypothesis were inconclusive. Instead, this was a battle of personalities, with careers and reputations at stake.

Taubes then reviews over a century of research. In doing so, he make a compelling and convincing defence of the carbohydrate hypothesis.

While the book is an impressive work, I had a two small issues with it.

The first is that Taubes effectively portrays some of the scientists mentioned in the book as the villains of the piece. This is not a dispassionate book, and you will leave with an unfavorable impression of a number of scientists. I'm not entirely convinced that it was necessary to do in order for Taubes to effectively make his argument.

The second is the lack of illustrations. Taubes is often describing complex biochemistry. While he is a fantastic writer and his descriptions are always clear, he often spends several pages describing a process that could have been made clear with a one page illustration.

Those are both somewhat minor issues and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to anyone with an interest in nutrition.

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Dec 11, 2008 Glenn Dixon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Still in the first part of this book, but so far it is a thorough overview of the history of medical research into diet. It has almost completely shattered my view of the state of government-funded research in America. It is disturbing to discover that everything you have heard about healthy eating your whole life might be totally wrong.

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Dec 29, 2008 Bryan Pon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Examines the science and research behind diet and health.

* Current guidelines in the U.S. advocating low-fat diets to reduce risk of heart disease, hypertension, athersclerosis, etc. are not supported by the science.

* The obesity and Type II diabetes epidemics in the U.S. have as a primary dietary factor refined carbohydrates--not fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, lack of fiber, or lack of exercise.

* Obesity is not a result of input-output imbalance (i.e., that person eats too much and exercises...more

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Dec 04, 2008 Sofi Carpenter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: health

I love anything that has to do with nutrition. If it wasn't for all those hard chemistry classes I probably would have pursued a degree in nutrition. The information in this book is fascinating. The author makes a good case for today's dietary problems including obesity, diabetes, heart disease etc. The culprit, he argues, is a constant diet of refine carbohydrates. It isn't the calories that matter as much as our body's response to the glucose in those "bad" carbs. He also discusses at great le...more

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Dec 29, 2008 Tucker Carney rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Honestly, I never finished the book. At first I thought it was incredible, and the explanation of how our culture came to embrace the food pyramid and the switch to processed carbo-loaded foods was fascinating and infuriating. But like any good contrarian, as I got further into the book I started to question many of the authors sources too. It's too one sided. I'd like a little more give and take even if it ultimately ended up with the same conclusion. With the one sided format you start to ques...more

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Dec 22, 2008 Justine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. scientific journalism in regards to how to evaluate science. Persons with last names liek "Keys" are generally bad for our society (i.e. Ancel Keys, Alan Keyes, John Maynard Keynes, Alicia Keys etc). Okay I just made up that hypothesis myself. But it helps me remember Ancel Keys name. He's the Univ. of Minnesota physiologist who first demonized cholesterol despite the fact that there wasn't any conclusive evidence that it caused heart attacks or other problems.

This book is very heavy on research...more scientific journalism in regards to how to evaluate science. Persons with last names liek "Keys" are generally bad for our society (i.e. Ancel Keys, Alan Keyes, John Maynard Keynes, Alicia Keys etc). Okay I just made up that hypothesis myself. But it helps me remember Ancel Keys name. He's the Univ. of Minnesota physiologist who first demonized cholesterol despite the fact that there wasn't any conclusive evidence that it caused heart attacks or other problems.

This book is very heavy on research on science as well as the political history behind "nutritional science" which Taubes doesn't consider to be a real science because of the lack of testing of hypotheses.

He does a great job of explaining the process of fat storage in the body and the role of insulin in signaling to our bodies what to do.

The epilogue summarizes his findings in a 10 point list:

1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart disease, or any other chronic disease of civilization.
2. The problem is the carbohydrates in the diet, their effect on insulin secretion, and thus the hormonal regulation of homeostasis -- the entire harmonic ensemble of the human body. The more easily digestible and refined the carbohydrates, teh greater the effect on our health, weight and well-being.
3. Sugars -- sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup specifically -- are particularly harmful, probably because the combination of fructose and glucose simultaneously elevates insulin levels while overloading the liver with carbohydrates.
4. Thru their direct effect on insulin and blood sugar, refined carbohydrates, starches and sugars are the dietary cause of coronary heart disease and diabetes. They are the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and the other chronic diseases of civilization
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. Expending mroe energy than we consume does not lead to long-term weight loss; it leads to hunger.
7. Fattening and obesity are caused by an imbalance-- a disequilibrium -- in the hormonal regulation of adipose tissue and fat metabolism. Fat synthesis and storage exceed the mobilization of fat from the adipose tissue and its subsequent oxidation. We become leaner with the hormonal regulation of the fat tissue reverses this balance.
8. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage. When insulin levels are elevated -- either chronically or after a meal-- we accumulate fat in our fat tissue. When insulin levels fall, we release fat from our fat tissue and use it for fuel.
9. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. The fewer carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.
10. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.(less)

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Feb 26, 2008 Lala Hulse rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First the bad - this book is a slog, especially the first third of it. It definitely takes some effort to read.
That said, if you're interested in nutrition, or fitness, or biology or, as I am, debunking and exposing bad science, you should read this book.
Taubes makes a convincing case for the idea that the dietary guidelines we Americans have been getting for the last forty years are not healthy and are making us fatter and less fit. He shows how obesity is considered a moral failing (laziness...more

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Mar 01, 2008 Stephan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Required reading for all US citizens.

Get off the low-fat, high-carb train because it's killing you. Why is it that we've been following the nutrition "experts'" advice for three decades now in the US, yet diabetes and obesity are skyrocketing? Why does their advice tell us to eat things that are very different from what our bodies evolved to thrive on? Hmmm, maybe because they're WRONG?

Taubes is a correspondent for "Science" magazine, one of the most highly respected science journals in the wor...more

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Jan 16, 2008 Jack rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone

It's difficult to recommend this book highly enough. There are at least three topics about which the common wisdom is completely overturned by the author in this book: the physiology of fat accumulation and obesity, the causes of the "diseases of civilization" such diabetes and heart conditions, and the nature of a healthy diet which will produce weight loss along with physical and mental well-being. Pretty much everything we have been brought up to believe regarding these subjects is fundamenta...more It's difficult to recommend this book highly enough. There are at least three topics about which the common wisdom is completely overturned by the author in this book: the physiology of fat accumulation and obesity, the causes of the "diseases of civilization" such diabetes and heart conditions, and the nature of a healthy diet which will produce weight loss along with physical and mental well-being. Pretty much everything we have been brought up to believe regarding these subjects is fundamentally flawed, as Taubes demonstrates convincingly, and the popular science behind current recommendations about diet and weight loss has been thoroughly compromised by misconceptions and a stubborn refusal to honestly assess the evidence on the part of health "authorities."
There are also possibilities for a valuable social critique based on Taubes' analysis, though he does not address them. Perhaps most important is the social status of the overweight and obese in out society, who have suffered being labeled as "weak-willed," "gluttons," and "lazy." Some health authorities have even gone so far as, and feel perfectly justified in, condoning a form of ostracism and a social quarantine for the overweight in order to confine their negative, unhealthy lifestyles that perhaps, the latest wisdom pronounces, are contagious.
As Taubes shows, all of this is guided, or misguided, by a fundamental lack of understanding of the nature and causes of obesity. A person does not get fat because he or she overeats or does not exercise enough; rather, a person eats more and exercises less because they are fat. Once this basic truth is realized, almost all the current dieting and exercise advise streaming daily from the health industry, including its recent social assault on the overweight, goes out the window and into the garbage where it belongs.
Furthermore, Taubes reveals that the correct methods for weight loss and health have been known for sometime, but have been ignored in the popular media and scientific community, all based on the simple refusal to believe that neither the consumption of fat, overeating, nor a sedentary lifestyle are the causes of obesity. Instead, the cause of obesity is the fat accumulation that occurs from the effects of insulin, excessive quantities of which are triggered by the over-consumption of carbohydrates, indicating that the currently recommendations regarding the best ratios for fat and carbohydrate consumption in a healthy diet have things completely backwards.
This should amount to no less than a revolution in the way we think about dieting and health, even though anyone actually paying to the scientific evidence would already have come to Taubes’s conclusions. It will be interesting to see the popular reaction to this book, assuming there is any at all.
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Jul 16, 2008 Pcallist rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this 500 page tome in 2 days. Resisted starting to re-read because I promised it to others. This is by outstanding science journalist Gary Taubes. I had so many light bulbs going on while I read this that I was almost blinded. I'm a chemist and I have taken a course in chemical thermodynamics. His treatment of 'all calories are not created equally' was revelatory. For a long time the nutritionists argument that because you can extract (by testing with a bomb calorimeter in a lab) 9 calori...more

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Oct 24, 2007 Karin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is NOT a diet book (as one might imagine from looking at the cover)... it's an quietly revolutionary treatise by a very accomplished science journalist. It's a very dense book that requires a lot of thought, especially from somebody like me with only cursory background in biology. Nevertheless, I find it absolutely fascinating. Taubes not only undermines a lot of the basic nutritional wisdom we all grew up with, he details the historical evolution of scientific thought about nutrition in a...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Ali rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book opened my eyes in a big way. It basically looks at, in great detail, why the saturated fat hypothesis (i.e. that eating saturated fat causes heart disease) is wrong. Very wrong. The first part of the book is a history of how that came to be (the personalities, politics and cultural landscape that led to this becoming the dominant public health paradigm on heart disease). The second part looks at the science and how scientists have been twisting themselves into knots trying to interpret...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Larry Brennan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: foodie-books

Taubes outlines the public health policy decisions and the flawed studies that have been advocating a high-carb diet since the 1970's. He also provides an overview of other studies, empirical evidence and historical documents that argue for a low-carb approach to weight management.

The main message is that the digestion of food is tightly tied to the endocrine system and different macronutrients (protein, fat, carbs) use different metabolic pathways which determine their overall impact on body co...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Maria rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The rating is an aversge of 4 for content and 2 for format. Not friendly to read, too many details. You can read the internal book jacket and the epilogue and you have the perfect summary: carbs are to blame for every thing, from diabetes to weight gain.

The summary of the book is in the epilogue, so I'm quoting it:

"Throughout this research, I tried to follow the facts wherever they led. In writing the book (which took 5 years of research), I have tried to let the science and the evidence speak f...more The rating is an aversge of 4 for content and 2 for format. Not friendly to read, too many details. You can read the internal book jacket and the epilogue and you have the perfect summary: carbs are to blame for every thing, from diabetes to weight gain.

The summary of the book is in the epilogue, so I'm quoting it:

"Throughout this research, I tried to follow the facts wherever they led. In writing the book (which took 5 years of research), I have tried to let the science and the evidence speak for themselves. When I began my research, I had no idea that I would come to believe that obesity is not caused by eating too much, or that exercise is not a means of prevention. Nor did I believe that diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's could possible be caused by the consumption of refined carbohydrates and sugars. I had no idea that I would find the quality of the research on nutrition, obesity, and chronic disease to be so inadequate; that so much of the conventional wisdom would be founded on so little substantial evidence; and that, once it was, the researchers and the public-health authorities who funded the research would no longer see any reason to challenge this conventional wisdom and so to test its validity.
"As I emerge from this research, though, certain conclusions seem inescapable to me, based on existing knowledge:
"1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart disease, or any other chronic disease of civilization.
2. The problem is the carbohydrates in the diet, their effect on insulin secretion, and thus the hormonal regulation of homeostasis--the entire harmonic ensemble of the human body. The more easily digestible and refined the carbohydrates, the greater the effect on our health, weight, and well-being.
3. Sugars--sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup specifically--are particularly harmful, probably because the combination of fructose and glucose simultaneously elevates insulin levels while overloading the liver with carbohydrates.
4. Through their direct effect on insulin and blood sugar, refined carbohydrates, starches, and sugars are the dietary cause of coronary heart disease and diabetes. They are the most likely causes of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and the other chronic diseases of civilization.
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. Expending more energy than we consume does not lead to long-term weight loss; it leads to hunger.
7. Fattening and obesity are caused by an imbalance--a disequilibrium--in the hormonal regulation of adipose tissue and fat metabolism. Fat synthesis and storage exceed the mobilization of fat from the adipose tissue and its subsequent oxidation. We become leaner when the hormonal regulation of the fat tissue reverses this balance.
8. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage. When insulin levels are elevated--either chronically or after a meal--we accumulate fat in our fat tissue. When insulin levels fall, we release fat from our fat tissue and use it for fuel.
9. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. The fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.
10. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity."

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Oct 22, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is both brilliant and somewhat hard to read. It is not a nonfiction novel, but a scientific paper written for the layperson to understand.
Sometimes it's dry. Like, really dry, and goes way into listing references and studies and whatnot, even after the author has made his point.
There's a reason for this, you see: This book is powerful. And powerful things beget enemies, and the only defense this book can muster is Science! So many times, I have a discussion with someone about why I ea...more This book is both brilliant and somewhat hard to read. It is not a nonfiction novel, but a scientific paper written for the layperson to understand.
Sometimes it's dry. Like, really dry, and goes way into listing references and studies and whatnot, even after the author has made his point.
There's a reason for this, you see: This book is powerful. And powerful things beget enemies, and the only defense this book can muster is Science! So many times, I have a discussion with someone about why I eat the way I do, and they whip out some arbitrary "common sense" "fact." I ask them for a source, and they don't have it. Then I skip the fries.

So let's get into the meat of it:

What's this book about? It's a very long-winded study of the idea that refined carbohydrates (and their affect on hormones [insulin]) that make us fat and give us diseases. That's all that it's about, and it's still a huge book. Why? See above.

What's good? I lost ten pounds (180 to 170) following this basic plan: no sugars or flour if I can help it. None at all. Also, my chronic upset stomach mysteriously vanished.

What's bad? Well, after I lost ten pounds, I kind of hovered there, unable to go down. But I cheat on the diet a lot, because CHOCOLATE. But I'm buckling down, trying to lost that last 10-15 pounds, get that six-pack (currently hovering at almost 2), and rule the world. Results on the latter may vary.
The damned book is long. It's sometimes hard to read. For a while there, I averaged a page a day. To put that into perspective, I read Jurassic Park in a single day. Fun book. Geoff Goldblum dies.
Also, Gary Taubes tends to take his own word as gospel. Yes, he's right about a lot of stuff. Yes, sugar and flour are bad for us. But he makes some dodgy assumptions, like maybe insulin causes anorexia. Um... citation needed.

All in all, I've seen two camps on this one: Absolutely Right and Absolutely Bullshit. I'm in the former, for the most part.

But I still can't live without chocolate.

Read this book if you just can't seem to lose that weight.
Book changed my life, changed my eating, partially cured me of a chronic ailment, and might help me avoid dying at 40 like my grandfather. 4 out of 6.(less)

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Jun 19, 2012 Abigail rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Abigail by: Jonathan Dubman

Good Calories, Bad Calories is a comprehensive review of the last hundred or more years of research into “diseases of civilization” (such as heart disease and cancer), obesity and their possible dietary causes and treatments. Sounds like it would be dry as toast, right? In fact, I’ve rarely found a piece of nonfiction so interesting. Taubes’s style is eminently readable, and his work reads well cover to cover (as opposed to feeling like a textbook of unrelated chapters). It is meticulously refer...more Good Calories, Bad Calories is a comprehensive review of the last hundred or more years of research into “diseases of civilization” (such as heart disease and cancer), obesity and their possible dietary causes and treatments. Sounds like it would be dry as toast, right? In fact, I’ve rarely found a piece of nonfiction so interesting. Taubes’s style is eminently readable, and his work reads well cover to cover (as opposed to feeling like a textbook of unrelated chapters). It is meticulously referenced and annotated (“densely” so, he would write), which is a good thing given that he is challenging so many authorities.

I wanted him to prescribe something, give me some action item. Instead he presents the facts and afterward draws only what conclusions he can. That might be good science, but it can be confusing to read. The text flowed smoothly, but sometimes I wasn’t certain what the subject was supposed to be (is this book about heart disease or losing weight? Kind-of all of the above) or where he was going with it.

The book’s content is a lot more frustrating, through no fault of Taubes’s. Basically all the conventional wisdom about diet, obesity and heart disease — which has become the official recommendation of medical and governmental institutions as well — is wrong. At the very least, there is little scientific evidence to back it up. Since most people won’t take the time to read a 500-page treatise on the scientific history of obesity and heart disease, I’ll present you with the author’s own conclusions, below. If you disagree with any of them, then read this book and you’ll be convinced (or perhaps read his follow-up book intended for an audience with less time: Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It, which I’ll review later if I have time to read it).
(view spoiler)[1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart disease, or any other chronic disease of civilization.
2. The problem is the carbohydrates in the diet, their effect on insulin secretion, and thus the hormonal regulation of homeostasis—the entire harmonic ensemble of the human body. The more easily digestible and refined the carbohydrates, the greater the effect on our health, weight, and well-being.
3. Sugars—sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup specifically—are particularly harmful, probably because the combination of fructose and glucose simultaneously elevates insulin levels while overloading the liver with carbohydrates.
4. Through their direct effect on insulin and blood sugar, refined carbohydrates, starches, and sugars are the dietary cause of coronary heart disease and diabetes. They are the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and the other chronic diseases of civilization.
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. Expending more energy than we consume does not lead to long-term weight loss; it leads to hunger.
7. Fattening and obesity are caused by an imbalance—a disequilibrium—in the hormonal regulation of adipose tissue and fat metabolism. Fat synthesis and storage exceed the mobilization of fat from the adipose tissue and its subsequent oxidation. We become leaner when the hormonal regulation of the fat tissue reverses this balance.
8. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage. When insulin levels are elevated—either chronically or after a meal—we accumulate fat in our fat tissue. When insulin levels fall, we release fat from our fat tissue and use it for fuel.
9. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. The fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.
10. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity. (hide spoiler)]

Reading about how a group of “experts,” well-intentioned but more concerned with convincing others they were right than with actually being right, persuaded the government that low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets would prevent heart disease — when in fact the exact opposite appears to be true — is frustrating beyond belief. Yet if Taubes had started with his conclusions, I might have given up on the book at the start, dismissing it as quack science (which is exactly what the high-carb folks wanted people to do with Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution, which, it turns out, has a lot more scientific support than they do).

Yet the hardest part about reading the book is that the evidence he presents “forces us to rethink virtually all our cherished notions about how weight changes and why.” I felt, like Atkins did, “resentment that [I] had been duped so long by misinformation given me in the medical literature.” This book stops short of answering the salient question in the back of my mind: “So how much sugar can I eat?” (While losing weight? Pretty much none. But I mean for lean people just looking to maintain good health.) Perhaps his next book will.

I’ve heard that the greatest impact in public health over the last few decades was made by the anti-smoking campaigns, which have drastically reduced the incidence of lung cancer. Just think about the strides that could have been made against heart disease, cancer, hypertension, diabetes and obesity if all the money spent on convincing people to eat less and exercise more had instead been directed toward convincing people to eat less sugar. It’s a sobering thought.
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May 27, 2012 Sabe Jones rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: dieters, doctors, nutritionists, humans

Recommended to Sabe by: a doctor

Shelves: nonfiction

Gary Taubes' magnum opus of scientific journalism on the topic of nutrition, Good Calories Bad Calories is a book to be reckoned with. He takes the reader through one failure of science after another, detailing the blind spots and politics that have turned out so very much bad advice over the past 50 years or so. And he details the flip side, the accurate and often astonishing research that presents the scientific reality so many choose to ignore.

The book takes some work to get through; Taubes t...more

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Apr 11, 2012 David K rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you have any interest in the history of modern nutritional recommendations or are bothered by the continual contradictions of those same recommendations, this is a book you need to read. Gary Taubes is a science journalist and he's done some serious digging into the background of the numerous studies and papers that have proffered a nutritional orthodoxy on the basis of 'reasonable conjectures' that continue to run counter to actual evidence.

•Does eating fat make you fat?
•Does exercise make y...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Normally I don't read diet books, but this was a science book. It chronicles how the conventional wisdom about obesity and overweight is based on really flimsy science. It is very dense and technical, but I found it refreshing to push myself to really follow his arguments (which he makes repeatedly throughout the book so you CAN skim a bit).

It makes sense to me that there must be some metabolic reason that some people put on and retain fat more than others do. I know for myself that simple calo...more

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Mar 09, 2012 Jodi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: health-books, best-health-books

This book is one of the most important health books I have ever read.

(My copy was called 'The Diet Delusion' which is the UK and Australian etc. title of the book 'Good Calories, Bad Calories'.)

The author is incredibly intelligent and that this book took the author more than five years to write, shows. I've read few health books so intelligently written as this one.

I thought I was quite well educated about diet and the need to restrict refined carbohydrates (for good health and to stop weight ga...more

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Mar 09, 2012 Jodi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: best-health-books, good-novels, health-books

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Jan 03, 2012 Colie! rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fitness

This was a very thorough analysis of the history of diet in the U.S... a little too thorough at times. Once you've been reading the same science over and over, you just want to yell "OK, I GET IT! CARBS CAUSE AN INSULIN RUSH WHICH CAUSES A BUNCH OF OTHER HORRIBLE THINGS!" But I'm more of a fiction reader, and I know science relies on thoroughness, and so I appreciate it. Just for future readers, maybe take it a chapter at a time, or don't be afraid to skip around.

With that said, it was very ill...more This was a very thorough analysis of the history of diet in the U.S... a little too thorough at times. Once you've been reading the same science over and over, you just want to yell "OK, I GET IT! CARBS CAUSE AN INSULIN RUSH WHICH CAUSES A BUNCH OF OTHER HORRIBLE THINGS!" But I'm more of a fiction reader, and I know science relies on thoroughness, and so I appreciate it. Just for future readers, maybe take it a chapter at a time, or don't be afraid to skip around.

With that said, it was very illuminating, and I was happy to get a very in-depth, scientific view on why carbs cause us to gain weight, and why this has been denied by the medical community. (My sister just got her phD and verified a lot of the lofty goals to reveal truth in science get lost in completely unscientific political posturing, which is exactly what seems to have happened in the obesity epidemic.) A friend of mine said she "disagreed" with this book because it seemed very "Atkinsy", which I found a weird argument, insofar as it had no argument at all. The book winds up taking the side of reduced carb diets, but only after hundreds of pages of research and refuting our exercise and low-calories for weight loss standard, and showing how even in the 1800s a reduced carbohydrate diet was seen as the main way to lose fat. Just like the scientists Taubes writes about, a lot of us are prone to flat out reject something upon a gut feeling without doing adequate research. No one likes to hear that carbohydrates are bad for them (we find carbs delicious for a reason, they're basically as addictive as drugs-- who else has eaten a loaf of bread as toast here?) and we're so programmed to believe fat is evil, it's really difficult to imagine any other truth. But Taubes offers up study after study to challenge our preconceived notions with the hopes not that we will take his hypothesis as ultimate truth, but that we'll give it a fighting chance. I personally am depressed that I can't eat bagels or drink beer without feeling horrible, but hey, it's probably for my own good.

My only problem with the book is, while he says that lean people are more active, so exercise is not the key to weight loss (it also makes us hungry, so we make up for lost calories) he doesn't really address how exercise might change metabolism, or how carbohydrates are metabolized after high physical activity. As I do endurance sports, I'd like to know in a similarly in depth scientific way if the carbs I eat shortly before or after rigorous activity go straight to my muscles or wind up getting stored as triglycerides as well. I'm not about to eat a handful of jerky on a bike ride, though. (less)

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Sep 28, 2011 Cathy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book turns everything we thought we knew about good nutrition on its ear. For starters, the idea that you have to burn the same number of calories that you eat every day to avoid gaining weight is a myth. You think you can burn off that 500-calorie dessert you just ate? You would have to run for miles..and miles...and miles-- in a word, it's impossible. So is it hopeless? No. It's not the number of calories (though I suppose it's possible to overdo), it's the KIND of calories.

Believe it or...more This book turns everything we thought we knew about good nutrition on its ear. For starters, the idea that you have to burn the same number of calories that you eat every day to avoid gaining weight is a myth. You think you can burn off that 500-calorie dessert you just ate? You would have to run for miles..and miles...and miles-- in a word, it's impossible. So is it hopeless? No. It's not the number of calories (though I suppose it's possible to overdo), it's the KIND of calories.

Believe it or not, there has been a significant change in "settled science" regarding what's healthy since about the 1960s. Prior to that, doctors and dieticians understood that a diet heavy in carbohydrates increased ones risk of weight gain and certain illnesses, specifically diabetes; and that the remedy for both these problems was to restrict those carbohydrates drastically. Only in the 60s did dietary fat become the villain.

Gary Taubes, the author, is not a doctor or a scientist. He is an investigative reporter. His book is extensively documented with both well-published and not-so-well-published research from highly respected sources such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and the National Institute of Health, as well as direct interview with many of the authors of studies done over the recent past (140 pages of citations, small print!) Taubes began this effort as a "skeptical inquiry," not really expecting to discover much of what he learned during the process. He writes, "When I began my research...I had no idea that so much of the conventional wisdom would be founded on so little substantial evidence."

If you're at all interested in the affects of diet on health, this is a must read. Science is continually discovering new information about the human body and how it works. What is the role of hormones? How does the body metabolize the fats, sugars, and protein it takes in as food? What makes us store fat rather than burn it? Why are some people prone to disease and others are not -- and is there anything we can do about it? These are all questions that are probed in depth, many of which have surprising answers.

The book deals with a lot of medical and technical terminology and there's a lot to absorb, but even the slow reader that I am was able to finish it in about three weeks (468 pps.) If you can get through it, it will change the way you think about food... and the low-fat hype!(less)

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Jul 01, 2011 Austin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of the most frustrating things about my first year of residency has been obesity. Both doctors and patients feel helpless and frustrated by it. I've heard this book mentioned multiple times in articles about the subject and after reading the author's NYT magazine article I decided to give it a shot:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/mag...

This is a long, relatively dense, thoroughly researched book. Taubes is a career science writer - he doesn't have a special supplement or diet to sell. He c...more

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“The laboratory evidence that carbohydrate-rich diets can cause the body to reain water and so raise blood pressure, just as salt consumption is supposed to do, dates back well over a century” — 5 people liked it

“[T]he salient question is whether the increasing awareness of [heart] disease beginning in the 1920s coincided with the budding of an epidemic or simply better technology for diagnosis.” — 1 person liked it

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