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Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Gary Taubes
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Dec 28 2010 Borzoi Books
An eye-opening, myth-shattering examination of what makes us fat, from acclaimed science writer Gary Taubes.

In his New York Times best seller, Good Calories, Bad Calories, Taubes argued that our diet’s overemphasis on certain kinds of carbohydrates—not fats and not simply excess calories—has led directly to the obesity epidemic we face today. The result of thorough research, keen insight, and unassailable common sense, Good Calories, Bad Calories immediately stirred controversy and acclaim among academics, journalists, and writers alike. Michael Pollan heralded it as “a vitally important book, destined to change the way we think about food.”

Building upon this critical work in Good Calories, Bad Calories and presenting fresh evidence for his claim, Taubes now revisits the urgent question of what’s making us fat—and how we can change—in this exciting new book. Persuasive, straightforward, and practical, Why We Get Fat makes Taubes’s crucial argument newly accessible to a wider audience.

Taubes reveals the bad nutritional science of the last century, none more damaging or misguided than the “calories-in, calories-out” model of why we get fat, and the good science that has been ignored, especially regarding insulin’s regulation of our fat tissue. He also answers the most persistent questions: Why are some people thin and others fat? What roles do exercise and genetics play in our weight? What foods should we eat, and what foods should we avoid?

Packed with essential information and concluding with an easy-to-follow diet, Why We Get Fat is an invaluable key in our understanding of an international epidemic and a guide to what each of us can do about it.

Frequently Bought Together

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It + Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health + The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It
Price For All Three: CDN$ 44.20

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Review

“Well-researched and thoughtful . . . Reconsidering how our diet affects our bodies, how we might modify it to be healthier, and being less harsh with those who struggle with their weight are all worthy goals. Taubes has done us a great service by bringing these issues to the table.”
            -Dennis Rosen, The Boston Globe
 
“Less dense and easier to read [than Good Calories, Bad Calories] but no less revelatory.”
            -Jeff Baker, The Oregonian
 
“Taubes’s critique is so pointed and vociferous that reading him will change the way you look at calories, the food pyramid, and your daily diet.”
            -Men’s Journal
 
“Gary Taubes is a science journalist’s science journalist, who researches topics to the point of obsession—actually, well beyond that point—and never dumbs things down for readers.”
            -John Horgan, Scientific American
 
“Important . . . This excellent book, built on sound research and common sense, contains essential information.”
            -Larry Cox, Tucson Citizen
 
“This brave, paradigm-shifting man uses logic and the primary literature to unhinge the nutritional mantra of the last 80 years.”
            -Choice
 
“Aggressive . . . An exhaustive investigation.”
            -Casey Schwartz, The Daily Beast
 
“Passionate and urgent . . . Backed by a persuasive amount of detail . . . As an award-winning scientific journalist who spent the past decade rigorously tracking down and assimilating obesity research, he’s uniquely qualified to understand and present the big picture of scientific opinions and results. Despite legions of researchers and billions of government dollars expended, Taubes is the one to painstakingly compile this information, assimilate it, and make it available to the public . . . Taubes does the important and extraordinary work of pulling it all together for us.”
            -Karen Bentley, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 
“Clear and accessible . . . Taubes’s conviction alone makes Why We Get Fat well worth considering.”
            -Lacey Galbraith, Bookpage
 
“An enlightening treatise that is meticulously researched yet approachable by all, this will captivate anyone interested in the science of diet and disease.”
            -Starred review, Library Journal
 
“This is the book you can give to people who want to understand the science of why you’re finally losing weight . . . without being hungry and miserable doing it.”
            -Tom Naughton, FatHead
 
Why We Get Fat is nothing short of tremendous . . . This is a seminal book . . . What if the calories-in/calories-out hypothesis is wrong? What if we’ve spent two generations and billions of dollars re-engineering our food system and altering our eating habits away from fat . . . and making ourselves fatter and unhealthier as a result? That’s what Taubes convincingly argues with clear logic, specific evidence, and brilliant illustrations on every page.”
            -John Durant, Hunter-Gatherer
 
“Compelling . . . Gary Taubes has done it again . . . [Why We Get Fat] takes a hard look at the commonly held belief that the reason why we gain weight is because we consume more calories than we expend and turns it upside down . . . Packed with eye-opening information and elucidating studies.”
            -Diets in Review
 
“This is the book I knew was inside of Good Calories, Bad Calories . . . Why We Get Fat is the book to give to friends, doctors, congressmen, and anyone else who wants to understand the futility of our current nutritional advice . . . Clearly, obviously, succinctly, Taubes shows us how scientific theories that explained obesity as a hormonal rather than moral issue were abandoned during World War II for simplistic theories based on thermodynamics that work in physics, but make no sense when used to describe the behavior of complex biological systems.”
            -LowCarbConfidential
 
 
 

About the Author

Gary Taubes is a contributing correspondent for Science magazine, and his writing has also appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, and Esquire. His work has been included in The Best of the Best American Science Writing (2010), and has received three Science in Society Journalism Awards from the National Association of Science Writers, the only print journalist so recognized. He is currently a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator in Health Policy Research at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. He lives in Berkeley.

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding! Jan 28 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you haven't read Good Calories, Bad Calories, then this will serve as a good introduction to Gary Taube's survey of the research into diet and nutrition. If you have read GCBC then this still has some new things to offer, especially as GCBC wasn't specifically targeting obesity. Taubes demolishes the calories in/calories out model of obesity with cogent arguments, and brings up some new studies that came out after GCBC. Well worth a read!
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars It's All About The Science Mar 1 2011
Format:Hardcover
You have to approach this book with an open mind. It is purely science based; although it is the author's interpretation of the science. It is very easy to read with short, sweet (pun) chapters. The editing is not the most polished, but it's not a novel. Who really cares if the word fat is overused or there's a few grammar errors.

I see so many negative reviews because it doesn't agree with their own concepts. In fact, objectively speaking, this book attacks this very approach -- that things work because they worked for me and therefore they should for you too. These people haven't read the book, no way, and they are not criticizing the facts, the science. They behave exactly like the current dietary gurus who are too stupid to see it's not working. Because you're a vegan stick person is not proof this isn't valid science -- insulin sensitivity has you covered

Put yourself in one of two camps. Either you look at all the fatties and think they are weak minded slovenly gluttons or you think there's something physiologically wrong with them. If you're in the first group, which btw includes my own doctor, you need to read this book and consider the science. Not because I want to convince you, but because I want you to convince me it's wrong. Don't tell me that CICO isn't valid when you don't even understand that's not what he's saying. If you think it's a personality weakness problem, I have no time for your own mental deficiencies -- read the book before you criticize! If you're in the second group, if you're a frustrated dieter -- all dieters are -- then this book will open up a whole new world of possibilities. Even if you think you know it all, there are ideas here that will make you say "ahhh!"

Speaking from personal experience, and I have quite a bit, this book is close to the ultimate. I participate in most major diabetes forums and am in touch with possibly thousands of diabetics around the world. I watch a lot of people adopt a low carb lifestyle, some even vegan. I see medications being reduced and dropped. I see the weight falling off. I see people getting active. I see people getting healthy. Dozens? Hundreds? I am seeing personal friends doing the same. One is down 105 lbs in six months after a lifetime of constant gaining despite trying every diet out there. And it's all almost effortless. And it's working for me too. I'm down 25 lbs, my A1C (type 1) is 5.6%, DW & I joined a gym, my retinopathy has stalled completely, and I feel great. My lipids are perfect too! I've approached this as a science experiment, and the science has held up. I feel confident in saying 100% of people that follow this advice succeed. 100%!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Eureka, the solution in a nutshell July 29 2011
By Charlie
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book has totally changed my view of food and what to eat.

It is well written, concise, informative and supports its conclusions with detailed reference sources. Certainly the best book on food and weight control I have ever read. I am over 60 years of age and have tried other weight control regimes with success, however at the expense of feeling hungry most of the time and having to eat things that I don't really like. I now really understand the physiology of all this and realize that it is not simply a matter of calories in and calories out. This has been quite a revelation and has assisted me in focusing on the key elements of weight control.

I am presently reading his other book "good calories, bad calories" which is much more detailed and harder to read. If you want the quick and dirty read "Why we get fat" as is summarizes everything one needs to know in an easy to read and factual manner.

I now eat what I like, am not hungry, feel great and am able to easily keep my weight where I want it to be. Highly recommended.
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Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic and clear
More accessible than Good Calories, Bad Calories so better for everyone. Recommend it to all physicians especially GPs and all Dieticians.
Published 1 day ago by Dar Blue
1.0 out of 5 stars Bad Science
Terrible book. Dreadful. He could be right about insulin being the cause of obesity, but he doesn't provide any proof. It's just a wild guess. Read more
Published 29 days ago by adorita
5.0 out of 5 stars Life changing information
What prompted me to write this review was reading some of the negative reviews. I am 50 and I personally have followed a high fat low carb diet for a year and a half. Read more
Published 1 month ago by J. Doolan
4.0 out of 5 stars Great info right on the topic
Read it from cover to cover and got great insight on really why we get fat! Will not see diet the same way anymore!
Published 2 months ago by Steve Sirois
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent too bad I didn't have this book 10 years ago
Excellent book. Followed his common sense approach and lost 45 lbs in just 2 month. All I did is follow his guideline and the weight just came off. Read more
Published 3 months ago by HERVE DASILVA
3.0 out of 5 stars Useful, but not a show-stopper.
As with many such books, there is a limit on what one will usefully absorb and apply. The "Afterword" and "Appendix" are quite helpful in that regard. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Peter McInenly
4.0 out of 5 stars A tough slog, but worth the effort
I read this book recently on my ereader. Good thing ereaders are not quite as user-friendly as paper, otherwise I would have just jumped right to the end to see if he had any good... Read more
Published 4 months ago by 5 cats, 2 dogs
5.0 out of 5 stars Why we get fat
This is an excellent book. It does not subscribe to conventional science ,and thats what makes it a critical reader. It should be read by all.
Published 4 months ago by marcia mckoy
2.0 out of 5 stars Why we get fat
Have read similar facts in other books e.g. Wheat Belly and articles in magazines.
It got a bit tedious and I gave up on it.
Published 5 months ago by Daisy
5.0 out of 5 stars Why we get fat, by Gary Taubes
I found this book very insightful. Maybe somewhat extreme in cutting out carbohydrates, but I understand where the science is coming from. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Edna McKinney
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