Dietary research: Good calories, bad calories
My friend Thomas Ryan Stone has posted an interesting article on his site about the dietary research he and his wife conducted this past year, the low-carb lifestyle they adopted as a result, and the changes they noticed because of it.
I was particularly intrigued by this summary of the ten key conclusions in Gary Taubes’s book Good Calories, Bad Calories. Based on other information I’ve gleaned over the years, and what I’ve observed in my own dietary changes, I’m inclined to agree with these.
1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart disease, or any other chronic disease of civilization.
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.
3. Sugars — sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup specifically — are particularly harmful, probably because the combination of fructose and glucose simultaneously elevates 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 cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and the other chronic diseases of civilization.
5. Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not over-eating, and not sedentary behaviour.
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.
I rarely have time to read books lately, so I’m especially appreciative of good summaries like this. 
Hi Josh… glad my webpage was helpful. A few thoughts:
1. I *strongly* recommend you and your readers read the book you mentioned in this posting, Good Calories, Bad Calories, by Gary Taubes (in UK it is titled “The Diet Delusion”). I’ll note I do NOT recommend this one for everyone I know — it is not an easy read, so for people who just want practical advice on what to eat and a little of why, this is not the book for them (see #2 below). But this book is invaluable as it provides a history of the sad state of nutrition “science”, dating back to the 1800s up through modern day, and in particular is critical of so much of the “science” that so many contemporary views in nutrition and health rely on. After reading it you will never react to reading about a “study shows” the same way again (especially if you know that the study in question is an epidemiological study, and the writeup is claiming it is some evidence of causation of some kind or other.)
I know what you mean about lacking time, but I nonetheless strongly recommend it. For just how strongly… see point 3.
2. A lighter, more “practical book that I also recommend — though also full of science and by no means a truly “light read” — is Protein Power Lifeplan by Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades. This book has crucial chapters on cholesterol, Vitamin D, Magnesium, and many other critical topics to improving health. People who get this — be sure to get PPLP, not their earlier Protein Power book — PPLP is just more up to date (though getting a little dated now, since it was 2001 I think).
3. Susan and I have benefitted in the past 18 months (since getting serious about nutrition and health) from many books, many blogs, lots of articles, etc. … we’ll eventually add a second page at my site that provides categorized links to all these resources — a project for this summer.
However, for now I primarily give the two above book recommendations… and for audiences where many of the folks are Objectivists and/or Rand fans (which I assume many readers at this blog are)… I like to make the following claim to really make clear the level of the above recommendations: “These two books have done for our nutritional selves what Ayn Rand’s books and her philosophy of Objectivism did for our minds years ago.” Just as I’ve learned from many others in philosophy, economics, etc., as an Objectivist it was obviously Rand’s ideas that mattered most to my intellectual development. So too here… we’ve been influenced by many great doctors, nutrition experts, bloggers, and so on — but these two books together have had the greatest impact on our nutritional views and habits. Life-altering, and I owe the authors a debt I’ll never be able to repay.
I have some reservations about point number one which states that “Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart disease, or any other chronic disease of civilization.” Had Taubes stated that saturated fat is not the cause of obesity, heart disease, or any other chronic disease of civilization” I would concur. What this statement ignores is the connection between excessive omega-6 fat intake and heart disease. For example, on page 7 of this paper (http://thepaleodiet.com/articles/Dietary%20Fat%20Quality%20%20CHD%20August%202009.pdf) one reads, “The only long-term trial that reduced n-6 LA intake to resemble a traditional Mediterranean diet (but still higher than preindustrial LA intake) reduced CHD events and mortality by 70%. Then there’s a recent presentation by Dr. Bill Lands entitled Why Omega-6 Fat Matters to Your Health. http://omega-6-omega-3-balance.omegaoptimize.com/2009/11/10/why-omega6-fats-matter-to-your-health.aspx
so much dietary advice is faddish stuff that changes every few years. consider the much simpler “food eaters manifesto,” a book by michael pollan (“eat food, mostly plants, not too much.”)
Melissa,
That’s just it … we’re talking scientific research here, now, rather than fashion. And it sounds like Pollan’s advice directly contradicts the research findings.
Joshua