Our misguided beliefs about the cause of obesity has caused incalculable harm, Gary Taubes

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Tuesday, November 01, 2011 9:29 am Email this article
"Of all the dangerous ideas that health officials could have embraced while trying to understand why we get fat, they would have been hard-pressed to find one ultimately more damaging than calories-in/ calories-out. That it reinforces what appears to be so obvious -- obesity as the penalty for gluttony and sloth," writes Gary Taubes in his excellent book Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It. Our Beliefs About the Cause of Obesity Has Caused Incalculable Harm

Our beliefs about the cause of obesity has caused incalculable harm because it blames those who are obese

“But it’s misleading and misconceived on so many levels that it’s hard to imagine how it survived unscathed and virtually unchallenged for the last fifty years.

“It has done incalculable harm.

 

Our Beliefs About the Cause of Obesity Is Partly Responsible for the Increase In Obesity

Our beliefs about the cause of obesity is partly responsible about the increase in obesity because it directs attention away from the real cause

“Not only is this thinking at least partly responsible for the ever-growing numbers of obese and overweight in the world—while directing attention away from the real reasons we get fat—but it has served to reinforce the perception that those who are fat have no one to blame but themselves.

“That eating less invariably fails as a cure for obesity is rarely perceived as the single most important reason to make us question our assumptions, as Hilde Bruch suggested half a century ago.

“Rather, it is taken as still more evidence that the overweight and obese are incapable of following a diet and eating in moderation.

“And it puts the blame for their physical condition squarely on their behavior, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

 

There Must Be A Defect Somewhere Causing People to Overeat

There must be a defect somewhere causing people to overeat, the question is where

“There has to be a reason, of course, why anyone would eat more calories than he or she expends, particularly since the penalty for doing so is to suffer the physical and emotional cruelties of obesity.

“There must be a defect involved somewhere; the question is where.”

 

This is a MUST-READ Book

This is MUST-READ book for anyone interested in body weight

This is MUST-READ book for anyone interested in body weight… or anyone who believes that saturated fat is bad for you… or anyone who believes that carbohydrates are good for you… or anyone who believes that obesity is caused by a lack of will power… or anyone who believes that obesity is caused by eating too much and exercising too little (yes, of course this is true, but this does not answer the question as to why people eat too much and exercise too little, which Taubes answers in this book).

I highly recommend this book.

Gary Taubes is an excellent science journalist.

His previous books include “Good Calories, Bad Calories”, a longer book which is also about low-carb diets, but is a much longer book.

 

Other Articles from This Book, Why We Get Fat

Articles from Gary Taubes current book, Why We Get Fat

Gaining 5 lbs of muscle only burns an extra 24 calories per day notes Gary Taubes

Two obesity experts failed to mention that women lost no weight training for a marathon, Gary Taubes

The idea that exercise causes weight loss ignores the idea of working up an appetite, Gary Taubes

The idea that exercise causes weight loss due to nutritionist Jean Mayer, notes Gary Taubes

Exercise increases appetite notes Gary Taubes

1932 obesity researcher noted that strenuous physical exercise SLOWS weight loss, Gary Taubes

Very little evidence exists to support the belief that exercise affects how fat we are, Gary Taubes

Undereating isn’t a treatment or cure for obesity, only a way to temporarily lose weight Gary Taubes

Low-calorie diets were referred to as ‘semi-starvation’ diets until the 1970’s notes Gary Taubes

Eating less to lose weight simply doesn’t work for more than a few months notes Gary Taubes

Low-calorie diets cause only modest weight loss of 9 or 10 lbs notes Gary Taubes

Success of low-calorie diets are remarkably poor noted Albert Stunkard in 1959, notes Gary Taubes

Fat is associated with poverty, not prosperity notes Gary Taubes

If you want to lose weight, avoid stay away from carbohydrate-rich foods says Gary Taubes

Obesity is the result of a hormonal imbalance—too much insulin—says Gary Taubes

Carbohydrate is driving insulin is driving fat, Gary Taubes

When insulin levels are elevated, we gain fat, when it falls, we release fat to burned, Gary Taubes

It is absurd to think about obesity as caused by overeating, Gary Taubes

We don’t get fat because we eat too much and move too little, Gary Taubes

In 1934, German doctor startled by how many really fat children she saw in New York City

 

Other Articles from Good Calories, Bad Calories

Articles about Gary Taubes previous book, Good Calories, Bad Calories

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Foods to Avoid

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Foods you can eat as much as you want of

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Good calories from meat, fish, fowl, cheese, eggs, butter

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Bad calories from Bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals, corn

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Dietary fat does not cause heart disease

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Carbohydrates cause heart disease due to insulin

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Sugar and high fructose corn syrup are particularly harmful

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Refined carbohydrates cause cancer, Alzheimers, & other diseases

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Obesity is not due to overeating or lack of exercise

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Exercise does not make us lose excess fat; it makes us hungry

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: A hormonal imbalance causes us to get fat

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Insulin regulates fat storage

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Insulin regulates fat storage

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: The fewer carbohydrates we eat, the leaner we will be

 

Contact Info

Contact info for Gary Taubes

Gary Taubes
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

 

Articles on the same subject can be found here:

• Book - Why We Get Fat (by Gary Taubes)

• Taubes, Gary