Recommended Reading: Good Calories, Bad Calories

I’m finally finishing up Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health by Gary Taubes. He wrote another book “Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It” that apparently covers much of the same info but is simpler and easier to take in, I’m going to read it next. Good Calories, Bad Calories has been very informative. It’s thoroughly researched (like drinking from the fire hose) and does a good job pointing out the inadequacies in the research behind “fat = bad, carbohydrates = good, cholesterol = bad, red meat = bad, overeating = obesity”. I listened to it as an audiobook whilst on the commuter train and bus since I get motion sick if I try to read at all. Aside from how the narrator pronounces “fructose” I enjoyed it and learned a lot. In particular, some of the notions I understood as “fact” turn out to have been refuted study after study, many of them decades ago. At the end he has a summary of the points he’s made during the breadth of the book:

Each and every one of those points are supported by so much research and information it’s staggering. If you disagree with anything in those 10 points, I invite you to read the book =). Point #5 (and 6), in particular, was revealing to me. The book significantly strengthened my resolve to stay on a high fat, low carbohydrate diet in perpetuity. No way am I going to go back to eating that junk again.