I just finished reading Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. This is a book that I think everyone should read. It takes a critical look at all the ‘research’ that has gone on concerning diet and nutrition, and what lead us to the things we believe today, such as that our diets should be low in fat (or at least saturated fat) and we should eat a diet balanced with ‘healthy’ fats, protein, and carbs.

What Gary Taubes discovered in writing this book is pretty amazing. I can’t possibly give a detailed review in this blog, but here are a few things that stuck out:

  • A diet high in carbs can be linked to a lot of chronic diseases that plague our modern society, such as heart disease, cancer, and even Alzheimer’s. This has to do with how our bodies metabolize carbohydrates.
  • In order to metabolize carbohydrates our bodies release insulin. Insulin works to store fat in our adipose tissue, and also prevents fat from being pulled from our adipose tissue and being used as fuel. Eating lots of carbs, and having a continually elevated insulin level, works to constantly store fat while preventing it from being utilized for fuel.
  • The above mechanism explains why we can eat lots of carb calories and still be hungry – we are taking in and storing calories, instead of using them for fuel.
  • Conversely if our diets consist of mainly fat and protein we will be in a perpetual fat storage and release cycle. Our bodies will be able to utilize the fuel we are eating, rather than storing it. This is why high carb diets leave us feeling hungry no matter how much we eat, and high fat/protein diets satisfy us. In fact, we can lose weight or be lean on a high fat/protein diet without regard to the calories we are consuming largely because our hunger will be satisfied, our metabolism will adjust, and we’ll intuitively self-regulate.
  • Humans (primarily Inuit) have thrived on a diet of strictly animal meat and animal fat. This probably has a lot to do with foods available to our ancestors hundreds of thousands of years ago. It may not work or be best for everyone, but it shows that we don’t all need grains, fruits, or veggies to thrive.
  • Sumo wrestlers eat a diet that helps them get quite heavy at an early age. What is the primary component of their diet? Carbohydrates. Up to 80% of the calories they consume are carbohydrates.

My main take away is this: carbs are bad for our health. I’m shocked at the advice we get from our government and doctors about what to eat to be healthy. It makes me sad (and a little angry) to think that a lot of the disease, pain, suffering, and death all of us have had to deal with at one time or another might be caused by the amount of carbs in our diets. At the same time, as Gary Taubes states in the book, the research needed to absolutely conclude that low-carb diets are healthy and not harmful hasn’t been done, and probably won’t be within the next decade. I think that leaves us in a place where we have to individually experiment with our diets to determine what works best for us.

On the advice of my naturopath I’ve been moving towards a low to no-carb diet anyway, but this book really has me convinced it is the right thing to do – for my health today and in the long term. My main question is how this sort of diet jives with my desire to do endurance sports. The short answer is that it doesn’t. But I’ll continue to experiment anyway, and figure out what works best for me. I’ll try and post updates here to let you know how things are going.

In the meantime, read the book.