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Good Calories, Bad Calories

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Manufacturer: Knopf

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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.


PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS:

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 613.283
EAN: 9781400040780
Format: Roughcut
ISBN: 1400040787
Label: Knopf
Manufacturer: Knopf
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 640
Publication Date: 2007-09-25
Publisher: Knopf
Release Date: 2007-09-25
Studio: Knopf


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It
• In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
• Carb Wars: Sugar is the New Fat
• The Brain Trust Program: A Scientifically Based Three-Part Plan to Improve Memory, Elevate Mood, Enhance Attention, Alleviate Migraine and Menopausal Symptoms, and Boost Mental Energy
• 8 Weeks to Optimum Health: A Proven Program for Taking Full Advantage of Your Body's Natural Healing Power


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

A comprehensive review of dietary advice -
This book is a product of the internet age, as the author points out: a lifetime's worth of research was accomplished in only six years. His first task is to discredit the conventional wisdom and the institutions responsible, and he does this effectively, showing how a dozen or so influential scientists can spin ambiguous test data, so that, for instance, in the case of the dietary fat-heart disease theory, national policy results. His second task is to review the entire history of obesity research, concluding that calorie-restricting diets don't work. Throughout it all, the recurring theme is the harmful effects of refined carbohydrates.

A must-read for anyone interested in their health and longevity. -
Finally a clear, well-documented account of this nation's delusion about
fat and carbohydrates that has made us the obese, disease ridden country
that we have become. Because of the erroneous obsession of Ancel Keys and
his supporters we have been lied to by the entire medical profession and
have sacrificed the health of a whole generation. How easily we are duped
when the results of so many studies are selectively distorted and
dissenting opinion is squelched. This is the same technique the neocons
used to get us into the Iraq war.
Fat is good for you and especially saturated fat. Cholesterol below 200
results in cancer and hemorrhagic stroke. READ THIS BOOK.

Excellent book, for the avid science/history reader. -
The information in this book is Outstanding! It's almost like the light at the end of the tunnel of the lies about diet. There is only one problem! As an average reader, it is almost as if you need an abridged version to get directly to the point.

Gary presents all the facts and spares little to none of the details as to why our society has been taking "Opinions" as facts and costing our health issues!

My only wish is that for people with little time and patience for all the detail we could get to the solid fact and proof beneath all the evidence, times, names, organizations, and past issues.

I only gave this book 3 stars for that reason. Due to the length of the book and the amount of deatails. It took me way longer than I would have liked to spend to get to the juicy points. I am in no way downplaying what's presenting... only wishing it was easier to find in all the pages.

This book is a staple in the truth about our diets and why our sciences fail..... Thanks Gary.

Tired of the so-called experts....to each his own -
I had been eyeing this book for a while as I do try to keep an open mind about these things. So I read a friends copy. It was indeed a fascinating read...but no matter what you read....and there were alot of 5 star reviews here telling you to do this, do that....jump on the low-carb, anti bread, rice etc. bandwagon.....but the odd thing is.....look at the countries who diet is all about rice and veggies...and how HEALTHY they have been until our Fast Food joints enter the picture....and then you start to see fat all over the world. I did the Atkins plan about 5 years ago...lost 60 pounds...fairly quickly too. My body seemed to thrive on it..and contrary to what some reviews said...I was never hungry. BUT....and there always is one.....I started getting dizzy, started feeling sickly.....and ended up in the hospital....because on those extreme hard core diets like Atkins....you dont eat friut, you dont each healthy breads etc. I had a friend who had lost over 100 pounds on a low carb bragging how she hadn't had a piece of fruit or bread for over a year. And frankly I have to say...ANY diet or weight loss plan that FORBIDS a certain food...is not ever going to be ultimately healthy. My body shut down...completely...and my thyroid did as well. My doctors attributed it to being so obessesed with low carb...to eventually hurting my health. Now when I was following that regime, I was its staunchest supporter....but in restospect...after being so sick, in the hopsital and fighting a broken thyroid....I realized that the truth of the matter is that we are always looking for some fix. When the saying Everything in Moderation....is what is really the key. It took me almost two years and a weight gain of what I had lost PLUS more--to get my body healthy again, and get my thyroid working again. And one of my doctors--who also studied nutrition and was indeed a specialist...just came out and said...we have to find something that is FOR THE LONGTERM and that in his studies, those who tried to do the Atkins type diet...severe low carb...would evetually have tremendous aging issues down the road. It certainly aged me...it was not healthy. And now I eat fresh veggies, I eat chicken, fish and yes now and then red meat....but I also eat fresh fruits....any kind...I eat whole wheat bread and yes the evil potato now and then and I do eat rice too once and a while. I feel great....I have now lost over a hundred pounds...I look so much better. I do not say that one food is bad or good. Obviously I don't go walking around eating candy and cake and ice cream....but I will not forbid or banish any food from my world. I really try to watch the sugar and salt in my diet. But I will have a piece of cake or a candy bar once and a while..maybe every month or so..but the key is to NOT eat like that for most of your diet...and to get right back into healthy eating the next meal. There was some book out a few years ago by yet another author whos name escapes me, Julia Havy or something....but her gimmic was VICE BUSTING..she banned ice cream from her diet...and I watched her on some show and I thought wow-this woman is way too severe, it was her way or no way...and those types of people scare me, and are NOT healthy...they are too controlling and never open-minded which is never good. It truly is COMMON SENSE but we americans are always looking for the answer, a quick fix....I have to bust my vice and all...the fanatics out there selling health..its sad. They make money off our fears and desperation when we don't want to do the work ourselves. I have learned to eat in moderation. To exercise a half hour a day...to drink plenty of water and try (although its not always that easy) to get as much sleep as possible as SLEEP is just as important as diet in how we age and take care of ourselves. This book was interesting...but I really am tired of books that preach one regime over another....I just follow a healthy heart type diet. And to learn why I eat or reach for the so-called 'bad' foods, what emotions are playing a part in my choices. The mind is just as important as the body and most of us tend to ignore that. But I know I will never ever again go the low carb or nothing route...it was the worst thing I ever have done for my health. Or follow any plan that forbids you certain foods or tells you that you have to bust those vices or eles. Everything in moderation...and use common sense. You really dont need another book to know that. Go online...go to the American Heart Association site, or the Diabetes sight or another of the free sites out there and make your own way. Save your money, use your head. There is plenty of good free information out there for you to make up your own mind..and regain your health.

Great in depth journalism on nutritional politics -
This book is not a health/nutritional book per se, but more like journalistic muckracking. If you are looking for dietary advice, this is not exactly the right book because you have to wade through a lot of historical and sociological material to find the nutritional gems of indirect advice.

The title is a bit misleading. Due to its in-depth journalistic investigative nature, I would title this "The Politics of Nutritional Advice." Taubes goes into great detail, leaving no nutritional stone unturned, as he covers the history of the anti-fat crusade and dispels the myths of dietary cholesterol causing blood cholesterol.

At the end of this book you will realize that obesity is not due to excess caloric intake and/nor a deficiency in exercise. Carbs are much more to blame because they (unlike fat) affect insulin release, the main hormone involved in fat storage. Gaining weight (or not) has much more to do with a symphony of hormones than calories.

You will also learn that there is a great deal of politics involved in determining which nutritional theories get funded (as is the case with just about any science). As he states on p. 51-52: "Scientists were believed to be free of conflicts if their only source of funding was a federal agency, but all nutritionists knew that if their research failed to support the government position on a particular subject, the funding would go instead to someone who did."

Taubes didn't go into the benefits of the Omega 3s, which are proven to be highly beneficial in weight reduction. While he uses the example of the traditional Eskimos as being cancer-free, he overlooked the causes: 1) They were 100% raw fooders and 2) they ate a great deal of omega 3 fatty acids (which fish are high in).

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