Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It (Book Review)

This book discusses exactly what it says: why human beings get fat and what they can do to change it. The author, Gary Taubes, wrote a book called Good Calories, Bad Calories, in which he discusses the same topic in scientific terms. I hear it's a hefty read. His fans asked him to write something similar, but for "lay" people...something they could actually get through and understand. So along came this book. Taubes's main argument is: carbohydrates make us fat. If you want to lose weight, eat more meat...specifically with higher amounts of fat. It follows the same line of thinking as Atkins and the Paleo Diet. He argues that it's more efficient for the body to operate on fat and protein than it is on carbohydrates. He backs it up with scientific studies and historical movements that have taken place in the US. For instance, he points out that since the introduction of the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet in the 1960s, the number of overweight individuals has actually increased. He also goes further back in history and talks about populations all over the world that became obese when they were introduced to sugar, flour, and other carbohydrate-rich food...because they were cheap and readily accessible. The most interesting point about this book is that the author challenges diet paradigms that Americans have come to believe as true. Some of these include:

1) obesity is caused by overeating; if you want to lose weight you have eat less than what you need (essentially starve yourself).

2) a healthy diet includes low-fat foods and carbohydrates

3) exercise promotes weight loss

Taubes argues that nutrition authorities keep pushing these ideas into our culture, even though evidence from numerous studies has proven them false. He offers counter-arguments to all of the above:

1) People don't get fat because they overeat - they overeat because their hormones make them put on weight and they're trying to fuel their bodies with energy to maintain that weight (in other words, they overeat because they are fat).

2) carbohydrates stimulate hormones to store fat if not immediately used for energy; high-(animal) fat diets are actually most efficient for humans. 

3) exercise is not effective for weight loss because it makes you hungrier and eat more. 

He argues against other paradigms as well, such as those dealing with the economics of carbohydrates and poverty/wealth in communities. 

The main point I want to make about this book is that it challenges ideas we (Americans) have come to believe as true, even though the roots of these beliefs may be founded on illogical and non-scientific reasoning. I'm a proponent of his book because I've found much of what he says to be true, particularly through my own trial and error experiments with diet and exercise. I remember often feeling frustrated that the typical advice (eat less, eat low-fat, exercise to lose weight) did not work for me. It left me irritable, uncomfortable, hungry, and shocked when my clothing size went up instead of down. The best thing about the book, though, is that Taubes backs up everything he says with evidence. It's cited throughout the book and there are pages of references in the back. He isn't pulling his information from nowhere.

Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It is an eye-opening read that will get you thinking about the food/diet industry and how we get the information we do. If you're interested in health and diet, I recommend it. I think Taubes offers sound advice people can actually live by.