Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It
Title: Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It
Author: Gary Taubes
Year: 2010
Pages: 235
In an age of quick fixes and short cuts, it is prudent to occasionally revisit the basics. At least it is for me. I have wanted to read a book by Gary Taubes for years. I semi-regularly read his Substack posts, because he has been a bit of a voice crying in the nutritional wilderness for 20 years now and he makes sense. He has loudly proclaimed the faults inherent in the food pyramid. He is no fan of the FDA or USDA. I know I should stretch myself and read people who I typically don’t align with, but since I found this book at a thrift store for 50 cents… at that price you can’t blame me for confirming my own nutritional bias, can you?
Thanks for your understanding!
The first part of this post will be a short summary and the second a brief review.
If you have ever eaten a low carbohydrate diet, or purposely cut way down on flour, sugar, and starch to lose body fat (as opposed to lose weight, they are two different things) and wondered if there is science behind low carb eating, or if this is just another dietary fad, or if you have wanted a concise historical perspective on low carb eating, then look no further.
Mr. Taubes is a first rate journalist who has an impressive level of academic credentials including a Masters of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Stanford. This doesn’t, however, necessarily make him qualified to write on nutrition. But he does know how to read scientific journals, and so that makes him more qualified than most to speak on this topic. Mr Taubes writes clearly and engagingly with an excellent eye for weaving history into the fabric of the book. His journalistic skills are on full display.
Apparently this book is a condensed version of Mr. Taubes' earlier and much larger book Good Calories/Bad Calories. In both books he challenges the current orthodoxy that if we all eat less and exercise more, we will be able to collectively curb the rising tide of obesity in our country. This “belief system” (eat less/exercise more) of the current medical establishment, is misguided and has held us back from making any real progress in the burgeoning battle of the bulge.
Let me repeat that the current thinking behind the obesity epidemic is that we eat too much and we exercise too little. This seems reasonable enough, doesn't it?
Not so fast, claims Mr. Taubes. There is a large body of history and science that dispute the validity of this approach. And he makes his case like an attorney.
What is Mr. Taubes thesis?
Mr. Taubes states that we don’t get fat because we overeat, we overeat because we are getting fat.
Read that again because it is difficult to grasp. We overeat because we are getting fat.
As I said, he has enough historical evidence and solid science behind his ideas that serious consideration of this idea is warranted.
A brief review:
I struggled with this book because I too have spent my life thinking I just needed to exercise more and eat less to stay lean. This has been the prevailing paradigm for the last 60+ years. The fact that insulin is the driving force behind fat accumulation and that insulin resistance is ultimately in the cards for most of us is sound. Nothing new about that. But the idea that our fat cells function as a coordinated unit, releasing and storing fat alternatively, all day long, was new to me. I had always understood fat storage as a savings account for times of scarcity. But this is not the case. It is more like a wallet, storing and releasing fuel (money) all day long alternatively.
Let me explain.
When we eat, specifically carbohydrates (think flour, sugar, and starch) the excess is converted to fat and stored. Carbohydrates cause us to secrete insulin to keep blood sugar levels in check. And insulin drives fat storage. When digestion of carbs is complete and insulin levels decrease, fat can be released and used for fuel instead of sugar. Again, fat moves back and forth all day long so keeping insulin levels to a minimum so that fat can be released for fuel is crucial. (It is important to note that we have the capacity to burn two different types of fuel, carbs [sugar] and fat. Fat being the better source of fuel.)
Problems begin when we consistently ingest too many carbohydrates and grow insulin resistant. When this happens our fat cells begin to take in more fat than they release because high levels of insulin dictate the storage. The reduction of available fuel, fat, is due to fat being stored and no longer available for energy. This leaves us hungry for sugary things. We grow fat not because we overeat, but because we are already growing fat. Our fat cells are taking in more than they are releasing. Tough to comprehend and this cycle continues while we grow overweight and get sick.
That was a lot I know. I had to wrestle with this book for a long time to be able to write this blog. It goes against what I thought I knew about the reasons we get fat in the first place.
In essence this book is a simplified statement of low carb eating, which I appreciate. But Taubes doesn't go far enough for me. Notable is the omission of any discussion on the role of oxygen in the metabolism of fats. Better breathing would necessarily lead to better weight management. (I’m already reading another book about this reality! Stay tuned.) Also absent is any acknowledgement of the role of Leptin, also a fat and hunger regulator. And finally, a huge omission is the role of our emotions on why we eat and store fat. These three things would have made a more complete picture.
Finally, I think a better title would have been, “How We Get Fat” instead of “Why We Get Fat…”. How it happens is pretty clear, too many carbs. Why it happens is still open for debate and multifactorial. But the advice is still sound. I know there are more up to date explanations that are more nuanced, but this is enough to get you going on lowering your carb intake.
Happy reading, I have the 50 cent copy in the office if you are curious to read it for yourself.
Cheers,
Dr. Swaim
Image by Olga Lobko from Pixabay