- TMUSCLE.com | Eat Your Lungs Out While Getting Leaner
- Interview with Gary Taubes (part 1)
- Understanding Bodyweight and Glycogen Depletion
- Glycogen requires water to be stored. In the initial stages of diet/caloric restriction and exercise, your body depletes these glycogen stores, reducing your bodyweight from the elimination of both the weight of the stored glycogen and the weight of the water. Note that nowhere in this process is the much-desired loss of fat!
- Low fat diets: Not fit for purpose - Features, Health & Wellbeing - The Independent
- I was told recently that food bills in Thailand are rising because health-conscious Thais had started buying expensive bottles of polyunsaturated oil, rather than the cheap coconut oil they'd used for millennia. The reason? Polyunsaturates fitted the low-fat mantra while coconut oil, high in saturated fat, was now bad. I felt like banging my head on the dashboard.
- Thought Leader » Bruce Cohen » Fat lot of lies about your health
- Mangan's: "Good Calories, Bad Calories"
- The ideas behind so-called "Paleolithic nutrition" helped me to see the fundamental truth behind Taubes' thesis. Mankind almost surely ate a very low carbohydrate diet in the millions of years prior to agriculture, and they were not dropping dead from heart attacks nor were they unable to hunt their prey because of obesity. Some groups of Paleolithic people and hunter-gatherers, the Eskimos for instance, must have been in a continuous, even life-long, state of ketosis. Despite the dicta of the low-fat gurus, ketogenic diets are healthy. Low-carbohydrate diets improve cardiovascular risk factors compared to a low-fat diet.
- Overcoming Bias: Gary Taubes, "Good Calories, Bad Calories"
- The Nightshirt - Good Calories, Bad Calories
- I nice little review for Taubes' book.
- Health & Nutrition by Michael R. Eades, M.D. » Leptin, low-carb and hunger
- Triglycerides - fat circulating in the blood - interrupts the passage of leptin across the BBB. If trigylcerides are high, which they are in most obese people, then, basically, they block the movement of leptin into the brain. So, leptin levels are elevated in the blood, and triglycerides keep the leptin from getting to where it needs to get to shut off hunger.
- Health & Nutrition by Michael R. Eades, M.D. - Low-carb diet improves lipid profile better than low-fat diet
- Nice evidence (though some not statistically significant) that low carb improved lipid profile, including reducing amount of small LDL. Very interesting.
- Effect of Intra-arterial Insulin on Tissue Cholesterol and Fatty Acids in Alloxan-Diabetic Dogs -- CRUZ et al. 9 (1): 39 -- Circulation Research
- ANATOLIO B. CRUZ M.D.1, DONALD S. AMATUZIO M.D.1, FRANCISCO GRANDE M.D.1, LYLE J. HAY M.D.1, With the technical assistance of Miss Donna E. Swenson, B.S.
1 Jay Phillips Research Laboratory, Mount Sinai Hospital, the Departments of Medicine, Physiological Hygiene and Surgery, and the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn
Insulin and saline were injected into the right and left femoral arteries respectively of 19 alloxan-diabetes-mellitus dogs for 1 to 28 weeks. A significant increase of artery tissue cholesterol and total fatty acids was found on comparing the insulin-administered right leg with the saline-administered left leg. Similarly, a significant increase of total fatty acids in muscle was found on comparing the right with the left leg of the alloxan-diabetes mellitus dogs. No significant differences were observed in the normal animals when the insulin-injected side was compared with the noninjected.
- The Surprising Reason People Get Fat - Dr. Weil
- A chemical compound derived from glucose, he said, turns fatty acids - the "burnable" kind of fat - into triglycerides, the "storable" form of fat. Consequently, "Anything that works to transport glucose into fat cells works to deposit fat." And what transports glucose in fat cells? Insulin. "When insulin is secreted or chronically elevated, fat accumulates in fat tissue," he said. "When insulin levels drop, fat escapes from fat tissue and the fat depots shrink."
Bottom line: "Carbohydrate is driving insulin is driving fat deposition." So when it comes to accumulating fat, carbohydrates are indeed "bad calories," as they are the only ones that boost insulin and make fat accumulation possible.
While Dr. Weil agrees with most of Taubes' research, he draws the line at the writer's specific dietary recommendations: "I don't agree that the way to respond to this information is to eat a diet that is mostly meat and no carbohydrate." He said instead that people should eat animal protein two to three times per week - mostly as fatty, cold-water fish to reap the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids - and otherwise eat carbohydrate foods that rank low on the glycemic load scale.
"All carbohydrates are not the same, nor do all people react to them in the same way," he said. "That needs to be taken into account."
But overall, Dr. Weil, like the other assembled health-care professionals, came away impressed. "I invited Gary to speak, and I've been recommending the book to my medical colleagues and students. It's important to get this information out to the medical community, because a lot of the ways that we try to prevent and treat obesity are based on assumptions that have no scientific evidence." - Good News on Saturated Fat - TierneyLab - Science - New York Times Blog
- Health & Nutrition by Michael R. Eades, M.D. » Low-carb diets reduce oxidative stress
- "The only thing that reliably does increase lifespan is caloric restriction (CR). CR is thought to work in great measure by decreasing the number of free radicals fired off in the mitochondria as a consequence of the mitochondria having less food that they have to process. The mitochondria make their own antioxidants - one of which is glutathione - to help protect themselves from the free radicals they generate. Anything that increases the glutathione within the mitochondria is going to help increase longevity and decrease many of the ravages of disease, many of which stem from excess mitochondrial free radical production. This study indicates that a ketogenic diet significantly increases the production of glutathione within the mitochondria, which is right where you want it."
Excellent summary of some important points about low carb diets, ketosis, antioxidants, free radicals. Appears that free radicals are largely produced by mitochondria in response to metabolism of food. Mitochondria produce their own anti-oxidants. Low card diet increases mitrochondria production of anti-oxy. Ingested anti oxy don't appear to enter the mitochondia (do they help outside the mito?).
Calorie restricted diets (CRD) may help extend life because mito produce fewer free radicals due to less metabolic activity. - Cholesterol Screening Is Urged for Young - NYTimes.com
- "The nation's pediatricians are recommending ...more aggressive use of cholesterol-lowering drugs starting as early as the age of 8 in hopes of preventing adult heart problems."
Appalling! And they admit: There is NO research to support such a recommendation. In fact, Gary Taubes' thorough review of the scientific literature found found no support for the belief that blood cholesterol levels influence heart disease risk. - The Spark of Reason: A Swift Kick in the ASP
- Big fat lie - Telegraph
- "'The natural question is, "What regulates fat accumulation?"' he begins, swivelling gently in his office chair. 'That was actually worked out 50 years ago. We know that the hormone insulin is what puts fat in fat tissue. Raise insulin levels and you accumulate fat; lower insulin levels and you lose fat. And we secrete insulin as a response to carbohydrates in the diet."
- The Steaks Are High: It's Not A Fad: Why a Low Carb Diet is Actually Better For Your Health
- Mike's Eyes (Spotted By): Mass Preventive Medicine Prevents Individual Rights
- Health & Nutrition by Michael R. Eades, M.D. - Low-carb and calories
- Jimmy Moore's Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Blog: 'Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show' Episode 139: Talking Low-Carb With Gary Taubes (Part 1)
- Part 1 of 2 interview with Gary Taubes. Pretty good interview by Jimmy Moore. Let's Taubes rant a bit, which is always good.
- Diary of a Carb Phobe - Prevention.com
- I avoided bread and pasta like the plague. Soon my friends avoided me like it, too....By Gary Taubes
- Proven Health Benefits of Saturated Fats
- Nathan Pritikin
- Pritikin vs. Atkins: A Decades-Long Battle Whose Resolution Could Save Millions of Lives
- Atkins Diet Myths Busted
- Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes - Hardcover - Random House
- The 11 Critical Conclusions of Good Calories, Bad Calories:
- Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, does not cause heart disease.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating and not sedentary behavior.
- Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter any more than it causes a child to grow taller.
- Exercise does not make us lose excess fat; it makes us hungry.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The fewer carbohydrates we eat, the leaner we will be.
- Keith Connects The Dots: More than One Kind of Exercise...
- "In a nut shell the author, Gary Taubes, claims that exercise doesn't work. Fat people stay fat, and lean people stay lean. All exercise does is burn a few calories, then boost your appetite and make you want to eat more. But there's a big problem with his analysis."
Not sure this guy is credible. Don't see studies. Don't trust it yet. - Low-Carb Diet Plan - Gary Taubes
- There's Been An Explosion Of Attention On Gary Taubes, 'Good Calories, Bad Calories'
- UC Berkeley Webcasts | Video and Podcasts: The Quality of Calories: What Makes Us Fat and Why Nobody Seems to Care
- Absolutely superb lecture by Taubes. I found it an excellent complement to the book. Filled in details I was unclear on.
- UC Berkeley Webcasts | Video and Podcasts: The Quality of Calories: What Makes Us Fat and Why Nobody Seems to Care
- Carb Wars Blog: Gary Taubes at UC Berekey
- "There's a group at the University of Cincinnati that did an Atkins vs. low-fat study and they found that the Atkins people lost twice as much weight and they liked the diet much better. I was interviewing the dietitian who did the study. She had agreed to talk to me but she was very hesitant -- she didn't offer up any information. Finally, at the end of the interview, the one thing she offered freely: I asked her who funded it and she said the American Heart Association."
"I said, 'Well, I have to give them credit for funding it.'
"She said, 'Don't.' They funded it because we proposed it as a study that would refute the benefit. And when we found that the Atkins diet really worked and worked better than the low-calorie diet, now we're trying to get money to look further into it and they won't give it to us." - frontline: diet wars: interview: gary taubes | PBS
- ABC News: Carbohydrates May Make You Fat, Sick
- I thought this was a terrible video piece. Very silly situation she put Taubes in, seemed to miss the point of the book...I just hated it. For such an important subject, she (Vicki Mabrey?) really didn't treat it seriously...And I think this was a Nightline piece, which doesn't reflect well. Something I would expect to see on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, not Nightline.
- Good Calories, Bad Calories | Health and Wellness | AlterNet
- "Author Gary Taubes challenges common myths about obesity and explains why Atkins might well have been right."
- Borzoi Reader | Catalog | Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
- "You make claims in this book that counter everything we’ve been told. You argue that exercise has little or no effect on how much we weigh, that fattening is not about how many calories we eat but what kind of calories we eat. Really?"
Very informative (email?) interview with Taubes from the publisher. Covers a lot of ground and main points expanded upon in the book.
- The People's Pharmacy (Joe and Terry Graedon) - Interview with Gary Taubes
- Good interview with Taubes.
- BlogTalkRadio - Connie Bennett - The Low-Fat, High-Carb Diet Hoax: Why Conventional Wisdom Wrong -- With Gary Taubes - Bad Calories, Gary Taubes, Good Calories, sugar shock
- Pretty good interview with Connie Bennett, author of Sugar Shock. About 30 Minutes.
- Health & Nutrition by Michael R. Eades, M.D. - Gary Taubes strikes back
- The Brian Lehrer Show (Brian Lehrer-WYNC)
- Good interview.
- Weight of the Evidence: Review: Good Calories, Bad Calories Gary Taubes
- Is Good Health Merely a Guessing Game? : NPR
- Is Nutrition Science Not Really Science? - TierneyLab - Science - New York Times Blog
- "Gary Taubes, who chronicles many of those mistakes in his new book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, has some thoughts for Lab readers on why researchers in nutrition, obesity and chronic disease have gone wrong so often and why cascades occur so easily."
- Gary Taubes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- "Gary Taubes (born April 30, 1956) is an American science writer. He is the author of Nobel Dreams (1987), Bad Science: the Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion (1993), and Good Calories, Bad Calories (2007). He has won the Science In Society Award of the National Association of Science Writers three times and was awarded an MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship for 1996-97."
- There's Been An Explosion Of Attention On Gary Taubes, 'Good Calories, Bad Calories'
- Good source for links on interview with Taubes.
 | Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes |
 | Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes |