What if everything you think you know about the cause and cure of overweight and obesity is wrong? I mean seriously, harmfully wrong on an epidemic scale. In Why We Get Fat author Gary Taubes makes the passionate and urgent case that people are getting fat and diabetic because the so-called health advice they get is the exact opposite of what’s needed. Backed by a persuasive amount of detail, Taubes explains how our ideas and practices around fatness (and diseases related to fatness) have been corrupted by bad and incomplete science.
More specifically, the long-standing, rigid beliefs formed around the calories in/calories out theory and the role of dietary fat blocks the open consideration of alternative ideas and new information. He claims the ingrained practice of ignoring, rejecting and discounting fact-based evidence makes research seem more like religion than science. “… the individuals involved in this research have not only wasted decades of time, effort, and money, but have done incalculable damage along the way.”
Taubes is on a mission to undo the many misconceptions that “pass for public health and medical advice…and to arm you with the necessary information and logic to take your health and well-being into your own hands.” As an award-winning scientific journalist who spent the past decade rigorously tracking down and assimilating obesity research, he’s uniquely qualified to understand and present the big picture of scientific opinions and results. Despite legions of researchers and billions of government dollars expended, Taubes is the one to painstakingly compile this information, assimilate it, and make it available to the public.
It’s not really surprising to learn that most research is done in a vacuum, so to speak. Researchers don’t typically communicate or collaborate with each other, and there’s little understanding of how a small piece of the pie fits in with the whole. This is one of the major problems to be solved. In the meantime, Taubes does the important and extraordinary work of pulling it all together for us. The scientific evidence he collected is comprehensively detailed in his prior book, Good Calories Bad Calories, which should be required reading for all physicians and health care practitioners. Why We Get Fat has a similar follow-on message, but it’s written for the average person. That said, the content of Why We Get Fat still has a strong scientific orientation, which Taubes does not dumb down, so it may not appeal to all.
Article comments
1 - Rachael Pontillo
I am going to check this one out. It is so true that you cannot trust researchers at all. For every study saying one thing, there are twenty out there saying the exact opposite. It will be interesting to get a different point of view.
I think it isn't just fat/caloric intake that is the problem it is unhealthy, processed food and all of the fillers, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, colors, etc. People ate this in the seventies, but not to the extent that they do today. More people still ate whole foods and home cooked meals. People need to start doing that again.
2 - Dana
Rachael, it's not fat intake or caloric intake that's the problem *at all*. You are going to get completely different results from eating 2000 calories of fat a day than you will from eating 2000 calories of carbohydrate. IF you can manage 2000 calories of fat. Fat, unlike protein or carbohydrate, induces true satiety on a biochemical level.
In every society that has had significant amounts of carbohydrate foods in their cuisine, there has been health damage and even obesity in those individuals who chose or were forced to eat a greater percentage of their diet as carbohydrate foods. The field of paleopathology shows that since the advent of grain agriculture we have become shorter, more prone to tooth decay and more susceptible to disease. Even ancient Egyptian art showed Pharoahs with pot bellies. None of this is anything new; we used to know, as a society, that sugar and starch caused overweight. We've been snookered by industrial food interests, the scientists whose research they've funded, and the politicians whose votes they buy.
3 - Sandra Neary
We were lucky enough to read Taube's "Good Calories, Bad Calories" about two years ago and make several adjustments to the way we (used to) eat that have had remarkable results. I thank Karen Bentley for this complete and thoughtful assessment of "Why We Get Fat". We include whole grains in our diet as well as lots of fresh vegies, but have eliminated virtually all sugar (including lactose and fructose) and all refined or processed foods. End result: we are much healthier and have lost a lot of weight. One small comment: in the "70's" a lot of simple carb food was eaten far less regularly than it is today - a "treat" was once a month or once a year, not once a week or once a day. I believe that sort of "reward" eating is one of the factors influencing today's trend towards obesity.
4 - Paul
When ever I live abroad, I lose weight, when I come back to the States, I gain it back. Learning to cook for myself helped a lot, too, because I was eating food instead of processed junk. Add to this cars making us a sitting society, and I'd say being unhealthy is built into the system.
5 - Jeff
You failed to mention that there are absolutely NO studies that equate fat intake with weight gain, heart disease or diabetes.
You are absolutely wrong.
6 - Flip
Recent research suggests that a baby born today has a life-span of 80. So how 'bout we just stop sweating so much about what we should and shouldn't eat, and just enjoy life? Everything in moderation, right? There's bigger issues in this world to get uptight about than "carbs or fats".