Editorial Product Review:Item Description: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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Buyer Reviews
Average Buyer Rating:
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"It's the insulin, stupid"
I first heard Gary Taubes interviewed on Canadian CBC radio in the Fall of 2007. I laughed and I laughed and I laughed... How could someone who was so clearly ignorant of nutrition and health would be invited to appear on the venerable science show "Quirks and Quarks"? Another one of those Atkins nutcases- "Why don't they just go away!" I fumed.
Anyway, some months later I picked up a copy, mainly to show Peggy-Sue that I was still open to others' opinions (hers). I was hooked right from the opening pages. It is not a light-hearted read, but I couldn't put it down. I should add that I am a bit of a science geek, have a PhD in engineering (why is everyone surprised about that?), and a long term interest in nutrition. I have to admit that back in the 80's as a younger man I totally bought into the Pritikin low-fat diet - hook, line and sinker.
I found Gary Taubes writing, logic and conclusions so compelling, there was only one option - perform a personal experiment. It was pretty obvious what was needed to be done. I did consult Atkins, South Beach and a few other "diet" books for some "how-to" tips, but basically cut out sugar, bread, rice, beer (sadly) etc, and focused on fish, meat, nuts, dairy and vegetables. It was almost scary at first, taking that first sinful mouth full of roast chicken with the skin on!
Now in my mid 40's I have been experiencing a few of those problems that seem to plague men of a certain age. Weight starting to creep up, midnight trips to the bathroom, poor quality sleep, unstable blood sugar, and also rather severe reflux (GERD), for which I had begun to take prescription proton pump inhibitors. On the basic middle-age downhill run. Since cutting right back on sugar and starchy carbs the weight just fell off over a few months, effortlessly, with no hunger. I'm down about 20lbs and look better in a pair of speedos than any man my age has a right to *wink*. I don't even really get hungry anymore, not in the "God give me a muffin right now before I collapse" way. My reflux is gone, completely, 100% cured. No more prescription antacids. I sleep like a baby, and rarely make a nighttime trip to the bathroom. Pegs' reaction whenever I take off my shirt (OMG!) makes it all worthwhile.
Good Calories, Bad Calories is primarily a science book, not a diet book. For me the connection was easy, but others may want to consult a low-carb diet book. A good place to start is Living the Low Carb Life: Controlled Carbohydrate Eating for Long-Term Weight Loss by Jonny Bowden. Now If I could only get Peggy-Sue (nee Gubermann) to cut back on the bagels, rugoleh and matzo balls, our life together would be perfect.
This is a powerful read that cause me to discard some deeply-held convictions about diet and nutrition. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Congratulations to Mr Taubes for an outstanding contribution.
Dirk Manly (not real name)
Customer Rating: -
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.
Customer Rating: -
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.
Customer Rating: 
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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.