Comments on: Dietary research: Good calories, bad calories

By: flagyl

flagyl — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:31:00 +0000

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By: kidney stones diet

kidney stones diet — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:54:00 +0000

Hi Joshua,
Was fascinated by your ten key conclusions of good calories,bad calories. I can quite believe that fattening and obesity are caused by an imbalance in hormonal regualtion. Anyone that doesn’t should ask themselves why there are people or couples, whilst eating the same diet, process the fats differently. One seemingly gaining more weight or less weight over the other whilst maintaining the same lifestyle.

By: Joshua Zader

Joshua Zader — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:11:05 +0000

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

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:25:29 +0000

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.”)

By: David Brown

David Brown — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:46:45 +0000

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

By: Tom Stone

Tom Stone — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:39:33 +0000

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.