Posted on 01/01/2012 7:21:08 PM PST by Altariel
Ten years ago, science writer Gary Taubes exercised an hour a day. He avoided fat in his diet, never even using milk in his oatmeal. But he kept gaining weight. As an experiment, the self-described carnivore tried the high-protein, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet - eating bacon and eggs for breakfast, pepperoni with melted mozzarella for lunch, and a steak for dinner - and lost 20 pounds in six weeks.
Since then, Taubes, an award-winning journalist and best-selling author, has stuck with the diet and spent countless hours collecting evidence to prove that it's not how much we eat but what we eat that makes us gain weight. In his fourth book, "Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It" (Knopf; 257 pages; $24.95), Taubes argues that an apple a day will not keep the doctor away. In fact, if your biological fate is to be overweight, that apple will tip the scales against you.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.sfgate.com ...
I'm surprised that so many years after Atkins' book, people are still able to write and sell new low-carb books, and that the fact that low-carb diets work and have proven to be healthy is considered to be news.
ping
I agree that refined carbs like white bread and anything containing sugar, honey or high fructose corn syrup should be avoided as much as possible. But fruits, especially berries, are very healthy and should be eaten in regularly although in moderate amounts, IMO.
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All sugars, honey, maple syrup, molasses and corn syrup
Beer, milk, soft drinks, yogurt, fruit and fruit juice...
NOOOOOOOOOOO!
Have always been a low to no carber and my blood work and weight are great.
On most fruits and vegetables, very difficult to pig out.
I don’t think you have anything to worry about there.
I didn't go nuts on the carbs though. I was still very conscious of what I was eating. Like my brother said ..."it is about making a lifestyle change with the way you eat". He is the one who bought the book for both me and my Dad.
I start it back up tomorrow...the best part is that you don't feel hungry. But, kicking carbs is like kicking a bad crack habit... 
I actually am on the last chapter of this book, which isn’t so much a “diet” book, as it is an explanation of why what both government and healthcare conventional wisdom has been spewing is all wrong.
Honestly, if you have been struggling to lose weight...read the book to understand the science of carbohydrate, fat, protein, and even estrogen (for women) interactions in the body...from there you won’t need a diet book, or health club membership...you will intuitively know what you need to do to lose weight..and keep it off:) You will feel a lot more empowered about the food decisions you make.
As a dietitian...reading this book has been a tough pill to swallow.
Hard liquor is fine though. Zero carbs.
"The pioneers of this diet (Palaeolithic man) are all extinct. Co-incidence?"
Quotes stolen from a different thread from a different site.
Congratulations on your weight loss. That is a significant achievement, and I’ll bet you feel great!
18-19 years ago, my husband and I read the Carbohydrate Addicts book by Richard and Rachael Heller ( both doctors ).
What that book dictated was to eat no carbs for breakfast and lunch and then for 1 hour ( dinner ) you could eat whatever you wanted and how much you wanted.
Your body was”tricked” by the first 2 meals of the day.
We both lost a bit of weight but after we went off of it about a year later, we gained it all right back.
The worst thing about it, I couldnt drink soda without it being diet til my 1 hour pig out session LOL.... and I detest diet soda GAG ~
I’m pretty close to the years ago because our oldest son was 2 at the time and he’ll be 21 in March.
The problem with the Adkin’s type diets (for me, anyhow) is that a high protein diet like the one’s described is too expensive to sustain.
I have been moderately successful with one hour of intense exercise daily (TBT) and watching the amount of food I eat, but there’s no way I could afford to eat unlimited amounts of meat and salads, so unless I want to go to bed hungry, I have to have some rice, potatoes, pasta or bread.
I eat whole grain breads, mix one cup of barley with two cups of rice when I cook a pot (that’s enough for two meals for two people) keep pasta to one meal a week and eat my potatoes with salt and pepper.
Where do beans fit in with all this? What about nuts?
We get fat b/c our metabolism slows down around the same time as our ability to pay for and appreciation of dining out nicely, goes up.
Boy, is that the truth.
Paleolithic man is genetically the same as modern man. I’m quite sure we’re not extinct.
And they died young due to infectious disease and injuries that were fatal in societies without hygeine or modern medicine. What they didn’t die of was heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, bone/joint diseases, or any of the various other health problems that are the major causes of premature death in the Western world. The ones who didn’t die of infection or injury commonly lived into their 80’s or later, without the benefits of modern medicine. This has been borne out by studies of primitive tribes who were never exposed to modern foods and ate hunter-gatherer diets. Interestingly, when members of those tribes did start to adopt modern agriculturally-based diets, they started to get the kinds of diseases that are the major killers in modern societies.
Yes, I’ve been Paleo for about six months, after over a decade of yo-yo dieting with traditional wisdom low-fat and low-cal diets. I’ve lost a ton of weight, don’t miss bread, rice, potatoes, etc. at all, and my blood work is continuing to improve. (If you have high cholesterol, you need the Lipoprofile test to differentiate the sizes of your LDL particles - only those of a certain size are related to heart disease, but this isn’t yet a commonly ordered test.) I can’t recommend Paleo highly enough, and while Taubes and Atkins aren’t quite the same, they’re very similar and equally far from the terrible USDA-recommended diet.
Atkins//Paleo can be expensive but doesn’t have to be. You can get great quality vegetables and fruit from your local farmer’s market for less than the grocery. Healthy grass-fed meat is available in bulk online for reasonable prices. And you can always go take a deer in season. Get a used freezer on Craigslist and you have months of healthy meat for the cost of a round of ammo.
For your second question, beans are out. Nuts are okay in moderation, but you want to watch your Omega 3/Omega 6 ratios (another area where grass-fed meat or game will help) and nuts tend to be high in Omega 6. A good fish oil supplement is also recommended to help with Omega 3 intake, about 3.5 g/day for optimum results.
He does a really good job of explaining that the insulin response doesn’t work the same for everyone, which is why some people can eat and eat and never gain a pound. That said, I think that for the majority of us...if we stay a way from those high energy/calorie carbohydrates...cupcakes, twinkies, soda, juice, chips, muffins, bagels, breakfast cereal...we should be able to manage our weight fluctuations...or lose weight if we need to. For some people the degree to which this is done may need to be more restrictive.
Nuts are a go, but again, these were considered forbidden foods through the 80’s and 90’s along with other “fat” foods. This was accepted by both the medical and nutrition establishment...along with eggs. Beans tend to be more starchy, so depending on the bean type I suppose. I personally can’t stand beans, so I’ve never paid much attention to their nutritional content. I believe the higher in fiber the better, since the glycemic index would be lower.
Your point is well taken about the cost. However, one of the things I tell my students...healthcare costs are going to get worse before they get better, and it is important to address our health now, so you aren’t paying for it later.
I know I won’t be able to make a diet/lifestyle that revolves so heavily around meat, but I think simply cutting back on refined/processed wheat and sugar products would be advantageous for anyone.
Again, his book is more of an explanation about the history of broken nutrition advice vs. a diet book.
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