What really makes us fat (NYTimes.com)

LesterBlackstone

Just because you choose to eat low calorie compared to low carb doesn't make him a quack.

No, the fact that Taubes cherry-picks data, ignores everything that disagrees with his fantasy, and misrepresents his own sources makes him a quack.



From some of his own sources:

“He knows how to spin a yarn,” says Barbara Rolls, an obesity expert at Pennsylvania State University. “What frightens me is that he picks and chooses his facts.”

She ought to know. Taubes interviewed her for some six hours, and she sent him “a huge bundle of papers,” but he didn’t quote a word of it. “If the facts don’t fit in with his yarn, he ignores them,” she says.

Instead, Taubes put together what sounds like convincing evidence that carbohydrates cause obesity.

“He took this weird little idea and blew it up, and people believed him,” says John Farquhar, a professor emeritus of medicine at Stanford University’s Center for Research in Disease Prevention. Taubes quoted Farquhar, but misrepre-sented his views. “What a disaster,” says Farquhar.

Others agree. “It’s silly to say that carbohydrates cause obesity,” says George Blackburn of Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “We’re overweight because we overeat calories.”

It’s not clear how Taubes thought he could ignore—or distort—what researchers told him. “The article was written in bad faith,” says F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, director of the Obesity Research Center at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York. “It was irresponsible.”

laus_8882

Gary Taubes, the most constipated man in the world. Cows fear him, Chickens flee when he approaches. Even small children aren't safe from his gob; cook them properly and they're indistinguishable from veal.

I prefer Robert Lustig as my anti-sugar god. As far as I know he doesn't lie and proclaim his lies to be SCIENTIFIC FACT YO while tearing apart a suckling pig with his bare hands.

mcarter99

I stopped reading at "By GARY TAUBES".

I wished I'd noticed it before reading it.

TheVimFuego

The more we concentrate on hormones and the less on the overly simplistic calories in/out math problem the better off we'll collectively be.

If calories in/out worked as effectively as touted then we'd be able to do it, and we can't.

I always find it interesting that the younger people tend to be down on this idea, presumably because their metabolism has been battered around less and yeh, they can lose weight by cutting the calories a bit, no worries. And hey, look at my ripped profile pic to prove it, check out those 'guns', etc.

Compare that to yer average dieter approaching middle-age just wanting to lose a bit of wobble ... Hormones a bit more of a factor there I'd wager.

But hey, you go your way, you keep trying to exercise off that grub by burning xxxx calories, and keep it up, good luck to ya.

Lolli1986

oh dear me... no, post-diet people cannot even slightly be considered to be the same as a person with a predisposition to obesity. holy what...

and... really? we're surprised that it takes more energy to break down proteins--massively complex molecules--than carbohydrates? >_>

that was some painfully bad journalism, too. >_>

All_is_well_1959

The real cause: too much food, lack of exercise .

Agree with this. I am working on cutting back on portion size and increased and regular exercise.

LesterBlackstone

The more we concentrate on hormones and the less on the overly simplistic calories in/out math problem the better off we'll collectively be.

If calories in/out worked as effectively as touted then we'd be able to do it, and we can't.

I always find it interesting that the younger people tend to be down on this idea, presumably because their metabolism has been battered around less and yeh, they can lose weight by cutting the calories a bit, no worries. And hey, look at my ripped profile pic to prove it, check out those 'guns', etc.

Compare that to yer average dieter approaching middle-age just wanting to lose a bit of wobble ... Hormones a bit more of a factor there I'd wager.

But hey, you go your way, you keep trying to exercise off that grub by burning xxxx calories, and keep it up, good luck to ya.

LOL

I guess it's much better to blame insulin than to take responsibility for one's own actions. Can't have that -- much better to blame carbs. Even though the insulin hypothesis has been thoroughly debunked. Let's just ignore everything published over the last 30 years (except for the few poorly designed studies that support our fantasies).

When calories are tightly controlled, there is no metabolic advantage to low-carb diets -- so let's ignore those and look at self-reported intake and rat studies instead.

If free-living conditions, low carb diets perform no better than any other calorie controlled diet.

But let's stick our fingers in our ears and go La, La, La, La --- CARBZ


Whether you want to admit it or not, the physiology of fat loss is actually quite simple, and it has been shown ad nauseum. Human behavior, on the other hand, is the complicated part. The single most important factor pertaining to fat loss is adherence - but we can't have that, we want to shun responsibility and look for the magic bullet instead.

But this clown Taubes insists on trotting out this crappy little study filled with design flaws that supposedly shows a metabolic advantage to low carb. But it this were true, how come

"Body weight did not differ significantly among the 3 diets (mean [95% CI], 91.5 [87.4-95.6] kg for low fat; 91.1 [87.0-95.2] kg for low glycemic index; and 91.2 [87.1-95.3] kg for very low carbohydrate”."


And speaking of hormones, the low-carb diet had the lowest leptin levels, but elevated cortisol and CRP. I like how Taubes chose to ignore that gem.

But we'll just ignore that too. Instead we'll focus on the supposed increases in REE and TEE --- they were shown to be consistently higher in the low-carb group, weren't they?

Or not



Oops!

MooMooooo

I couldn't agree with you more. The problem is most people who are obese have a broken metabolism from eating those garbage filled meals for so long. The solution for many is low carb eating. It corrects the broken metabolism for many.

Eating junk food or too much food in general 'breaks' your metabolism?

State your source!

I know being overweight speeds up metabolism - but I've never heard of a 'broken' metabolism.

I have heard of people developing type 2 diabetes, is this what you meant?

soonernick

How about this.....Find something that works and do it! If its Adkins, WW, Fasting, pizza, vodka, or insert fad diet here. If you are healthy and more importantly happy, who gives a rats *kitten* about the rest? All these charts, science reports, and nut jobs telling us what we should be doing is trash. Get regular check ups with the doctor, eat what makes you happy and healthy, and just live life! A ton of people seem to over think this.

Angellore

sitting on our bums and eating food makes us fat

DING DING DING DING

We have a winner.

You said it so well. You know, people WANT to hear that it's carbs, or fat or soda or whatever making them fat and they want a magic bullet (or in this case pill or operation) to fix it. We've probably all been there. But at the end of the day it's just good old fashioned exercise and healthy eating which is going to help us become AND STAY slimmer. I believe in moderation now, but it's taken me a long time to come to that conclusion.

BerryH

The British Medical Association sponsored a study about five years ago, and presumably using more advanced and accurate technology, that measured consumed and expended calories in a closed system and found that Atkins only works when more calories are burned than consumed, like any other diet. I'll see if I can track it down.

AbbsyBabbsy

People are not overweight because you eat too much, people eat too much because you're overweight. People are not thin because run marathons, people run marathons because they are thin. People are not responsible for their weight gain, carbs are. Exercise only makes you hungrier, doesn't burn as many calories as you'd think (but... wait.... why would that even matter since calories are bogus...hmmm) and has no benefit to weight loss.

How can anyone believe this stuff? Taubes is helping create a stereotype for the low-carb dieter that they are lazy and refuse to take responsibility for themselves. I know a Taubes devotee who claims eating something like a Greek yogurt would MAKE him then go on a carb binge at Taco Bell. He wouldn't want to eat 3000 cals, but the carbs would MAKE him.

Taubes is a hack.

MaraDiaz

"As in any science, these experiments should be replicated by independent investigators. We’ve been arguing about this for over a century. Let’s put it to rest with more good science. The public health implications are enormous."


We could possibly all come to an agreement on the above, the last three sentences in the article. I want to see more research, please!

deadstarsunburn

The usual garbage from Taubes

Yep

I agree. I'll be honest, I eat like **** most days. It hasn't slowed me down yet. I FEEL better when I eat better, but it has zero effect on my weight loss.

kuregisto

I stopped reading at "By GARY TAUBES".

I wished I'd noticed it before reading it.

Likewise.

thekacers

Good read, thanks for posting!

PaleoPath4Lyfe

In other words, carbohydrates are fattening, and obesity is a fat-storage defect. What matters, then, is the quantity and quality of carbohydrates we consume and their effect on insulin.

I have been saying this for YEARS

So you've been living in a fantasy world for years where the bold is true?

No, I live in the REAL world where many people have health problems due to the reasons stated in the article.

You should really open your mind because most everyone can not eat junk food and lose weight due to insulin and other hormone issues.

They are proving this more and more each day and the people need to wake up.

The fake food is not helping any of us and that is why I no longer partake in fake food.

PaleoPath4Lyfe

"As in any science, these experiments should be replicated by independent investigators. We’ve been arguing about this for over a century. Let’s put it to rest with more good science. The public health implications are enormous."


We could possibly all come to an agreement on the above, the last three sentences in the article. I want to see more research, please!

The proof is in society as a whole.

They have been pushing the "low fat, high carb" agenda since the 1950's and obesity and sickness in this country has risen every year of every decade since to the point we are at a crisis tipping point.

It is sad to see, but I will not be part of that. My lifestyle has changed and will never go back unless Monsanto, Cargill, ADM and the like take world dominion and finish creating the zombie population they have started.

It is so sad to see so many on this site and in society as a whole that are just blind sheep that totally buy into what they preach.

LesterBlackstone

It is so sad to see so many on this site and in society as a whole that are just blind sheep that totally buy into what they preach.

Oh the irony.

beckajw

In other words, carbohydrates are fattening, and obesity is a fat-storage defect. What matters, then, is the quantity and quality of carbohydrates we consume and their effect on insulin.

I have been saying this for YEARS

So you've been living in a fantasy world for years where the bold is true?

No, I live in the REAL world where many people have health problems due to the reasons stated in the article.

You should really open your mind because most everyone can not eat junk food and lose weight due to insulin and other hormone issues.

They are proving this more and more each day and the people need to wake up.

The fake food is not helping any of us and that is why I no longer partake in fake food.

While I agree that fake food isn't helping anyone, I don't see where you get any of your information from. Please state some sources. Stating that "most everyone can not eat junk food and lose weight due to insulin and other hormone issues" doesn't make much sense. Please explain.