Good Calories Bad Calories

Last week I mentioned I read this book that was 600 pages of the most interesting information on nutrition and the science of food. Although the book started out rather dry, I give it an A+. I now look at food in a whole different light. Allow me to go into detail with what the main point of his book was and then add some other interesting tid-bits I learned from author Gary Taubes and his book Good Calories, Bad Calories. Here are his main points:

1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart disease, or any other chronic disease of civilization. He uses various examples including the Inuit tribe in Alaska who eat a diet almost exclusively of fatty meat yet have no reported causes of diabetes, no obesity, and basically no cancer.

2. The problem is the carbohydrates in the diet, their effect on insulin secretion, and thus the hormonal regulation of homeostasis -- the entire harmonic ensemble of the human body. The more easily digestible and refined the carbohydrates, the greater the effect on our health, weight, and well being. His point is that obesity and weight control is not a simple formula of eating more calories than you consume. Rather, weight control/metabolism is a hormonal issue. Taubes basically argues that the worst thing to happen to the development on mankind is the advancement of agriculture practices. Some how mankind survived for generations with carbs, with the refinement through agriculture practices, and the dramatic increase in fructose/sucrose consumption has led to our health downfalls with cancer, heart disease, and other issues.

3. Sugars -- sucrose, and high-fructose corn syrup specifically -- are particularly harmful, probably because the combination of fructose and glucose simultaneously elevates the insulin levels while overloading the liver with carbohydrates.

4. Through their direct effect on insulin and blood sugar, refined carbohydrates, starches, and sugars are the dietary cause of coronary heart disease and diabetes. They are the most likely dietary causes of caner, Alzheimer's disease, and the other chronic diseases of civilization.

5. Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating, and not sedentary behavior. Obese people statistically do not eat more than lean people. They eat differently.

6. Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter, any more than it causes a child to grow taller. Expending more energy than we consume does not lead to long-term weight loss; it leads to hunger.

7. 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 the mobilization of fat from the adipose tissue and its subsequent oxidation. We become leaner when the hormonal regulation of the fat tissue reverses this balance.

8. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage. When insulin levels are elevated - either chronically or after a meal - we accumulate fat in our fat tissue. When insulin levels fall, we release fat from our fat tissue and use it for fuel.

9. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. The fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.

10. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.

It's not that humans don't need some carbs. In fact our brain runs exclusively on glucose. Taubes argues that we would get plenty of carbs from just eating fruits and vegetables and the rest can be produces by our liver through ketosis. Another point I found interesting was that not all health foods are created equally. For instance leafy green vegetables are 95% water and have almost no carbohydrates while other vegetables like potatoes are 20% carbs and really not that healthy for us at all. Taubes concludes his book by highly recommending that if Americans want to be healthy they should not restrict their diets. Restricting our calories by a third will likely see us restrict our nutrient intake by a third too. Instead, we should just eat the same calories but eat differently. Eat more meat, milk, cheese, eggs, and vegetables. Eat fewer sugars, flours, potatoes, and alcohol. This book is not a diet book. I cannot stress that enough. There are no recipes, no "helpful hints". This is a scientific journal with the basic hypothesis being that insulin is singularly responsible for fat accumulation. Carbohydrates are singularly responsible for prompting insulin secretion. Carbohydrates are required for excess fat accumulation. Both Type 2 diabetes and the obese have abnormally elevated levels of circulating insulin and a "greatly exaggerated" insulin response to carbohydrates in the diet. Unfortunately, Taubes proves that obesity is very much a genetic issue. Certain people can handle carbs better than others. Certain people, due to genetics, can eat much more than the average and see no weight gain. It is not that this can't be controlled, it is just a proven fact that some people have to work harder and eat smarter than others. It's the reason that most obese people by the age of 25, have reached a weight and do not fluctuate from that weight that much. Normally, obese people don't just keep getting fatter and fatter. They reach a certain weight that genetically they are destined to be at and just stay there. Unfortunately, it takes much more work for these people to become lean. It is the same reason why some men can eat well, lift weights everyday and never put on muscle. Genetics plays a huge role in how our bodies turn out. It's not that we can't work hard to overcome genetic obstacles, it is just important to note they exist. One point I found incredibly fascinating was his small section on the most successful weight-loss drug in history - cigarettes. According to Taubes, cigarette smokers will weigh, on average, six to ten pounds less than non-smokers. When they quit, they will invariably gain that much, if not more; approximately one in ten gain over thirty pounds. There seems to be nothing smokers can do to avoid this weight gain. Taubes continues by explaining that the common belief is that ex-smokers gain weight because they eat more once they quit. They will, but according to studies only in the first two or three weeks. After a month, former smokers will be eating no more than they would have been and they continued to smoke. The excess of calories consumed is not enough to explain the weight gain. The evidence suggests that nicotine induces weight loss by working on fat cells to increase their insulin resistance, while also deceasing the lipoprotein-lipase activity on these cells, both of which serve to inhibit the accumulation of fat and promote its mobilization over storage. Nicotine also seems to promote the mobilization of fatty acids directly by stimulating receptors on the membranes of the fat cells that are normally triggered by hormones such as adrenaline. Basically, when smokers quit, they gain weight because their fat cells respond to the absence of nicotine by significantly increasing lipoprotein-lipase activity. By the way, the weigh-reduction drug fenfluramine (phen-fen), which was banned in 97, worked in the same manner. This is yet another reason never to start smoking. When you quit, your body will gain weight! I know this is long and I tried not to bore you. I just find this stuff really interesting. I could go on it greater detail about any point if you want.