Taubes’ book is not a diet book! It has over 60 pages of bibliography for people to check the facts for themselves. It uncovers serious flaws in the conventional medical wisdom about diet. Don’t judge what Taubes has written from a simple TV sound bite - the book is over 600 pages and is aimed partly at medical professionals. What he asks in the book is not to believe what he says, but to examine the evidence.

Google Taubes and look for some of the more in-depth lectures he has done - both the Berkeley medical school and journalism school have invited him to talk and have his lectures online.

Last, he is not in this to earn a quick buck. He spent five years writing it, with five assistants to help him review every relevant study on diet that has been published. He interviewed every living medical researcher whose work he reviewed - over 600 of them.

It is also not a simplistic book. Human metabolism is much more complex than simple ‘calories in, calories out.’ The human body is not s simple machine.

He was surprised at the conclusions he found, but he does not push them - again, he invites readers to look at the evidence and decide for themselves.

This is a complex, serious and important book about medical science.

If this book is so scientifically sound, then show me an obese vegetarian. I haven’t found one. I was a total vegetarian for many years and still eat no meat and just a little bit of seafood. And most of my friends are vegetarians. We all pretty much eat nothing but carbs (pasta, grains, fruits, breads, etc.)and we’re all in excellent health with low cholesterol and low blood sugar levels (I have mine tested twice a year). You do know humans are by nature, omnivores, not carnivores - just look at our teeth and intestines. A lion is a carnivore and it’s digestive system is proportionately much shorter, their stomachs produce up to nine times as much acid for quickly digesting meat and moving it on out. Humans that do eat meat especially need grains to be used as fiber to better move the food through our very long intestinal systems.

Gary Taubes joked that his wife called him the “Grinch that’s trying to steal Christmas” - he’s actually the one telling us “The Emperor has no clothes!” The emperor in this case being the American Heart Association, American Diabetic Association, and all the other health/nutrition/etc. groups that continue to promote sugar in all its forms as a “health food” - BRAVO Mr. Taubes and other researchers/writers, such as Colpo, Ravnskov, Eades, etc who have brought us the truth about diet/heart disease/cholesterol.

We do not need carbs. Our body can survive perfectly well without them but fat and protein is essential. Saying that I like eating fruit and vegetables.
Taubes is not saying you cannot eat carbs and fruits people. You can eat low-sugar fruits and predominantly leafy green salad vegetables and broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, zucchini, mushroom, fennel,etc.

Gary Taubes is an award winning investigative science journalist and he is definitely not a quack or an idiot as he has been called on here. (Gary predicted this would happen; “first they will attack the messenger…”) He played football at Harvard while obtaining a degree in applied physics. Post graduate studies netted him an M.S. in aerospace engineering from Stanford and an M.S. from the Columbia journalism school. Gary is the only writer to ever be a three time science-in-society award winner, given by the National Association of Science Writers (by the way three times is the maximum that the National Association of Science Writers allows the award to be given to any one person). Gary’s qualifications speak for themselves.

As a science journalist Gary investigated and reported on controversial science in a wide range of fields. Having a nose for controversial science Gary’s work eventually led him to the areas of diet, nutrition and health. He did extensive research on this topic for a series of extensive articles that appeared in the journal Science. This led to his latest venture of years of extensive investigation which culminated in this latest book.

Gary’s book is not a diet book at all. It is an extensive and exhaustive investigation into the history of diet and nutrition research over the past 150 years. The book explores how the present day well ingrained low fat, high carb dogma was established and how its efficacy is not supported by the evidence. Based on the evidence Gary develops an “alternative hypothesis” of what constitutes good diet and nutrition and he challenges scientists to test it out using sound scientific practices. (Something that Gary shows has not been done to support of the present day Low Fat, High Carb Hypothesis.) He ties it all together and illustrates that there is little argument that 1) what ever is making us fat is not good for us and 2) being overweight is the cause of many serious and disastrous syndromes and diseases. He effectively argues that the low fat, high carb diet that has been pushed on the population for the past thirty years is most likely the reason for the obesity epidemic plaguing the world today. It is that simple. Gary explains that diet and nutrition is not rocket science, and he should know as he has studied and reported on rocket science during his prestigious career as an investigative science journalist.

I actually read the book. He’s reporting on the science of all this, and makes a good case that much of it is just awful.

I too am an anatomy and physiology student. I’m shocked that I’m being taught the conventional wisdom when it is based on such shoddy, shoddy science. It’s embarassing that we take any of it as national policy.

For all you nutritionists, dietiticians, anatomy and physiology students, if you want to be a conscientious professional, read it.

And then tell me what you think of the experimental evidence supporting the two hypothesis of overweight: is it calories in/calories out, or is it excess rapidly absorbed carbs.

The reason that most people believe the “politically correct” nutrition ideas propagated by our public health officials is because they are too stupid or lazy to think for themselves.

No better proof of this fact need be found than the negative posts in this thread.

Person after person posting negative reviews of a book that they haven’t read.

This book is 600+ pages of science history. It is not a freakin diet book.

Every single silly maxim (eat less, exercise more…blah blah blah) is purely parroting the advice of the establishment.

Thank God that Gary Taubes had the ability to lay out the actual scientific basis for these maxims…NONE.

I recently came back from a trip to Europe. It was sad to see that you could pick out the Americans at the airports—they were the fat ones. Our stores are full of boneless, skinless, tasteless cuts of meat, low fat and nonfat junk and substitutes for butter and eggs. It is hard to find whole milk or natural cooking oils, and yet we are the fattest and most medicated country on Earth.

The science supporting fat phobia never existed. Read the book with an open mind. He is telling the truth.

I have studied diet extensively the past 15 years and this is another quack duping the public to make more money. Carbohydrates are important to your diet and should be eaten in the amounts specified int the Dietary Guidelines of the American Heart Assocation. People are constantly being misled by “Doctors” about their diets. Of cours if everyone knew the correct way to eat, then people would be healther and how would “doctors” get rich. If people ate the amount of calories needed to maintain their desired weight, and followed the Daily Requirements, exercised 45 to 60 minutes a day they would weigh what they wanted, AND they would be healthy.

I am a registered dietitian and I found it upsetting to hear of another book that tries to discredit a huge body of evidence on how to eat. All cancer societies recommend a diet high in vegetables AND fruits to provide your body with cancer protective antioxidants and nutrients. High fibre foods help protect against certain cancers. Many more people die from heart disease than cancer, and his diet sounds like it would increase heart disease risk significantly.

The book is bogus - I read it and am a total vegetarian. I eat pasta, potatoes, fruit and breads almost every day of my life and I’m very healthy. If I weren’t, my triglycerides would be through the roof, yet they’re better than normal as is my choleterol and everything else. In a recent physical, my doctor asked how I kept myself in such great shape - I told him I eat mostly carbs, no meat and work out 3-4 times a week. A good friend of mine who eats like this guys says is very heavy, doesn’t work out and has very high triglycerides. She’s starting to think like I do. BTW, I am 62 years old!

All this guy is saying is that we should eat the way we evolved to eat—meat, nuts and plants. Why is that so crazy? Makes a lot of sense to me and explains why a low-carb diet has me 30 lbs lighter and feeling better than I have in years. I read Taubes’s NY Times article and NY Mag article. He’s a pretty smart guy. I’m sure the book is fascinating and very informative.

Have any of you read the book? I don’t think so. Taubes is not a diet doctor pushing “his” diet. He is a highly respected science journalist who makes a pretty compelling and intellectually exhaustive case for why years of bad science has lead our country to be the fattest and avoidably sickest in the world.Why don’t you try reading it instead of posting your ignorant comments based on a 30 second clip on EXTRA?

This man does not know what he is talking about … just one word - Balance! Why don’t we ever hear about a well balanced diet instead of this onslaught of “diet fads”?! Oh I know, it’s called “MONEY”!

Everything causes cancer nowadays. Air,water,bread,red-meat,coffee, chocolate…oh wait no that is right, dark chocolate is now good for you, so is limited amounts of coffee…I cannot keep track these day. Everything I do from microwaving, to talking on my cell phone is dangerous…well I hate to say it, I’ll take my chances, if I die from cancer I will blame it on the bed I sleep on…oh wait, they have not found that to cause cancer yet, but I am sure by the time I am 80, they will have come out with some study that proves that spring mattresses cause cancer. Although I am sure that I am genetically pre-disposed to it, there couldn’t be a connection, could there??

DO NOT Buy the book!!! What a rediculous un-original concept/theory!!! Atkins was already proven to hurt people and so will this dummy.
We all carry cancerous cells in our bodies. Healthy eating habits, excercise and a healthy positive “Mind’ are all neccesarry to help prevent or live with Cancer. Living a happy Positive life is ideal to prevent sickness. Balance and consistency is key in maintaining a healthy body.
This author proves anyone can write a book on dieting.
“His next book will probably be his theory on how drugs should be legal”.
DON’T BELIEVE A WORD OF IT! Thanks

This typed version of the segment is not near as bad as what I saw on TV this evening. I almost choked on my dinner from laughing.

I agree that he must be trying to make money from his book. However, my friend and I think he may be trying to invoke natural selection. The idiots who believe him will kill themselves with his advice!

I can’t believe all the idiots that are willing to make a judgment about this book without having read a word of it.
I don’t care if you have a medical degree, or if you have cancer and your on a diet that your doctor told you to be on. “Research studies” are skewed to the benefit of the party paying for the study. If you don’t know that by now, go vote for Clinton with the rest of the sheep.
I have been on a low carb diet for several years. I don’t “not eat carbs”. I just don’t eat a lot of carbs. It is a fact that insulin is produced in your body to convert carbs to fat. The more carbs you eat, the more fat gets converted. This is a fact.
I have excellent cognitive ability while consuming only a few carbs a day. I have also noticed an increase in congnitive ability when I take Omega III Fish Oil Supplements. So I don’t care what the “Sheep”, I mean Doctors say. I am healthy, I have normal Cholesterol Levels and I don’t have to worry about Diabetes, because I have a very low Insulin production.

Good luck to the rest of you.

Anyone remember Atkins? This is not a “new diet” - the part that is strange is the cancer angle and that “Exercise” does not help a person loose weight. BS!

This sounds like an Adkins diet all over again. I don’t understand why the diet of eating everything in moderation doesn’t catch on. There is no secret to weight loss. Burn more calories than you eat…that’s it! I just hope people don’t fall again for a high fat diet, it just doesn’t make sense. Also, I can’t imagine any reason a doctor of any kind would encourage people to not exercise. This guy just doesn’t seem to add up and his indepth research seems a little lacking since according to him he ONLY interviewed 600 people!