Why We Get Fat: and What To Do About It
© 2011, 2012 Gary Taubes
267 pages
The secret of weight, we are told, is as simple as physics, as the laws of thermodynamics. If we take in more energy in eating than we expend in exercise, we gain weight. If we use more energy than we eat, we lose weight. Hence the constant advice to those concerned about their bellies is to eat less and exercise more. Simple, right? ...then why doesn't it work? Why do millions
of people go on diets every January and struggle so mightily to do make any
progress? And how can there be so many societies in history and at present
where obesity is linked not to abundance, but to poverty? How can obesity and
malnutrition exist in the same family at the same time? Gary Taubes has
an answer, one which explains in full the link between obesity, diabetes, high
blood pressure, and cardiac problems while turning everything you think
you know about diet on its head.
Insulin
is the key. Taubes writes like a volleyball player, delivering his argument
with a bump, a set, and finally the spike. He begins by dismantling
conventional explanations about weight control, pointing out that even studies
done by institutions which dearly wanted to demonstrate an incontrovertible
link between exercise and diet and weight loss have failed to do so. He then
prepares the reader by pointing out that we already know that fat is managed
substantially by hormones, pointing out the role estrogen plays in shifting
body fat around at the onset of puberty. He also points out the way we observe
fat utilized in other animals: is a Jersey cow
lean because it eats lighter and runs laps around its field? Hardly. Jersey cows are bred as milk cows because their hormones
prioritize turning food into milk, and Angus cows are bred as beef because
their hormones emphasis turning food into fat and muscle. Calories and exercise
have nothing to do with it – not in cows, not in rats, and not in humans.
In
humans, insulin is the chief hormone that manages fat. We’ve known this for
decades, but somehow in the WW2 period the United States lost sight of the
consequences. Essentially, when insulin is present in the bloodstream, we
accumulate fat, and can’t get rid of it. When insulin is absent, our bodies are
free to convert fat into fuel. To avoid gaining weight, then, we must avoid
foods which stimulate the secretion of insulin, particularly carbohydrates and
sugar. No carbs means no grain, no corn, and no rice. The idea of going
“carbless” may strike modern readers as positively abnormal, but in truth the
diet we’re “used” to is the strange one from the perspective of natural
history. Humans evolved eating meat, fruit, and the occasional greens – our dependence on grains is relatively
recent, historically speaking. That dependence is one promoted by the idea which currently holds sway over dietary belief in America, that carbs are good and fat is bad: in most supermarkets, low-fat brands are the only option available. Not only is our love affair with carbohydrates fattening us up, says Taubes, but we've declared anathema a vital part of our diet. We’re supposed to be eating fat,
he says. The more fat in our diet, the more efficiently our bodies run -- and there's nothing to the idea that fatty diets lead to exercise, studies indicate.Here he and Michael Pollan concur.
The effective way to losing weight,
then, is to avoid carbohydrates and eat heartily the diet of our ancestors –
meat and greens. Fruit is more problematic because modern stocks have been bred
to be far more sugary than their antecedents. This approach has been advocated
by others; the famous Atkins Diet is based on it, for instance, and it’s very
similar to the “Paleo” diet which is now gaining in popularity. Why is there a link between obesity and
poverty? Because poor societies rely on cheap foodstuffs – carbohydrate-rich
foodstuff like bread and rice. Why is the Fast Food nation an obese
nation? Because carbohydrates are the
appetizer, main course, dessert, and drink under the golden arches.
.
Why
We Get Fat is a book of tremendous importance. In the United States
today, diets low in fat are emphasized even as sugary sodas are sold in the
public schools. Little wonder that despite the prolonged ad campaigns of the
past decades, obesity and its related
diseases continue to become worse. Not only are we missing the point, but our
attempts to address the problem only exacerbate it. Consider diabetes, a disease
defined by our bodies’ inability to manage its blood sugar. The dominant form
(Type 2) of diabetes is caused by our bodies becoming resistant to insulin:
that is, it is less effective at moving sugar out of the bloodstream and into
cells. Thus, our bodies have to produce more of it to do the job, and naturally
the body becomes even more resistant to insulin, rather like we build a
tolerance for alcohol. When the body’s demand for insulin product exceeds its
ability to do so, we recognize diabetes…but our solution is to inject more
insulin into the bloodstream. This is a
‘solution’ that guarantees the problem will never be addressed at its root. The lesson of Why We Get Fat
is that we become insulin-resistant because our diet
demands we produce an abnormal amount of the hormone. Change the diet to
minimize
insulin demand, and our bodies won’t develop that resistance.If that
weren't enough, Taubes also pins the blame for high blood pressure and
heart disease on it, though the latter is only a correlation.
Taubes has written two books in this vein; Good Calories, Bad Calories and this, Why We Get Fat. As I understand it, Good Calories, Bad Calories is the more substantial of the two, while Why We Get Fat is intended for a larger audience (har har) and emphasizes more application of the research. While Taubes doesn't promote a specific diet, the appendix does list various others (like Atkins) and provides general guidelines to eating. I've been doing my homework on Taubes' work for the last few months, since I first heard him in an extended interview on EconTalk, and I believe Why We Get Fat may be one of the most significant books I have ever read. Definitely recommended.
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