Highlights of Good Calories/Bad Calories

Rarely do we ever expound on a book or speak so highly of a singular title. However, in this case, writer Gary Taubes, a correspondent for Science Magazine and winner of three Science in Society Journalism awards, has written Good Calories/Bad Calories, a book that warrants attention.

• As far back as 1882 until the early 1960's, the experts recommended these foods to be avoided to prevent obesity:
  
• Bread, and everything else made with flour
• Cereals, including breakfast cereals and milk pudding
• Potatoes and all other white root vegetables
• Foods containing much sugar
• All sweets
  
  
• Then, in the mid to late 60's, the philosophy changed to carbs being heart healthy and low fat became the enemy.
  
  
• One of the most famous American studies ever performed, the Framingham Heart Study that began in 1950, revealed the following surprise (it was buried in the 24th volume of the 28 volume report in 1968): after studying the diets of men with exceedingly high and low levels of cholesterol, they differed not at all in the amount or type of fat consumed.
  
  
• Even Paleolithic expert Boyd Eaton (who Bonnie cites regularly) revised his 1985 discovery of humans eating 20-25 percent of fat at most. In 2000, he suggested that Paleolithic diets were extremely high in protein (35%), low in carb (35%), and higher in fat (30%). Many experts believe that we are most genetically compatible with the hunter/gatherers of the Paleolithic era.
  
  
• There is strong evidence to show that excess carbohydrate consumption is the main cause of hypertension (high blood pressure). Carbohydrates create fluid retention by holding onto sodium. Excess sodium of course creates a hypertensive state. This is something that very few realize in the medical community. So, in essence, the problem with hypertension is not taking in excess sodium, rather the excess intake of carbohydrates cases water retention by inhibiting the excretion of sodium. Thus, removing carbs from the diet works like a diuretic.
  
  
• Triglycerides, which are linked with carbohydrate metabolism and consumption, are a major cardiac risk factor. In fact, HDL to Triglyceride ratio is one of the most important cardiac risk indicators. Most, if not virtually all, individuals with high triglycerides have carb-induced lipemia.
  
  
• For the pundits that say high carbohydrate diets do not cause heart disease in under-nourished populations: they eat out of economic necessity rather than choice, they usually do not achieve the amount of calories needed on daily basis, and they consume predominately unrefined carbs. However, now that American fast food, which is loaded with refined carbs, is reaching under-nourished populations, we are seeing the rates of obesity skyrocket.
  
  
• The introduction of high fructose corn syrup dramatically increased sugar consumption per capita between 1965 and 2000 in the United States.
  
  
• Insulin and improper carbohydrate metabolism is related to cancer.
  
  
• Obesity is related to what you eat, more than how much you eat (i.e. refined carbs and sugars directly related). This totally refutes the "calories in, calories out" theory.
  
  
• The Pima Native American Tribe study is a prime example of a population who adapted to the Standard American Diet and became obese.
  
  
• Starving yourself and excess exercise most often do not help with weight loss. Hormonal, endocrine, and genetic connection is highly indicated. There is a failure of those to grasp that both hunger and sedentary behavior can be driven by a metabolic/hormonal disposition to grow fat. Discovering the metabolic and hormonal deviation that drives the fattening process is the key.
  
  
• Fattening and obesity are caused by an imbalance - a disequilibrium - in the hormonal regulation of adipose tissue and fat metabolism. Fat synthesis and storage exceed mobilization of fat from the adipose tissue and its subsequent oxidation. We become leaner when this hormonal regulation of the fat tissue reverses this balance (it can sometimes take a long time to reverse).
  
  
• Four facts regarding insulin and weight gain.
• Carbohydrates are singularly responsible for prompting insulin secretion.
• Insulin is singularly responsible for inducing fat accumulation. The leaner an individual, the lower the baseline insulin.
  
• Dietary Carbohydrates are required for inducing fat accumulation.
• Both Type 2 diabetics and the obese have abnormally elevated levels of circulating insulin response to carbohydrates in the diet.
  
  
• By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.

Gary has summed up through research much of what we have been saying for years and we would like to thank him for his tireless work and courageousness to publish this book.

What's prophetic is that soon after Gary's book was published, a major study from the January 2008 issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine has questioned whether the federal government's national guidelines advising Americans to eat a low-fat diet has contributed to the current obesity epidemic.

In addition, according to a January study published by the American Diabetes Association, the diabetes epidemic, also caused by excess carbohydrate consumption, now costs the United States $174 billion a year. That's more than the cost of the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the war on terror combined.