| Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Gary Taubes |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Obesity |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Publication date | December 2010 |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 272 |
| ISBN | 9780307272706 |
| Dewey Decimal | 613.712 |
| Preceded by | 'Good Calories, Bad Calories' |
Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It is a 2010 book by science writer Gary Taubes. Following Taubes’s 2007 book Good Calories, Bad Calories, in which he argues that the modern diet’s inclusion of too many refined carbohydrates is a primary contributor to the obesity epidemic, he elaborates in Why We Get Fat on how people can change their diets.
Contents |
Analyzing anthropological evidence and modern scientific literature, Taubes contends that the common “calories in, calories out” model of why we get fat is incorrect. Instead, Taubes promotes a low-carbohydrate diet, arguing that the consumption of carbohydrates drives the body to release insulin, which in turn can lead to insulin resistance (and diabetes) over time. Taubes also asserts that the consumption of carbohydrates leads the body to store excess energy in fat cells, but that reducing dietary intake of carbohydrates results in the body entering ketosis. In this state, the body breaks down fat (triglycerides) in order to fuel the brain.
Although Taubes points out his beliefs regarding consumption of carbohydrates, he clarifies that “this is not a diet book, because it’s not a diet we’re discussing.”
Harvard pulmonologist Dennis Rosen reviewed Why We Get Fat in a positive light, calling it a “well-researched and thoughtful book.”[1] In The New York Times, Abigail Zugar characterizes Why We Get Fat as “a sort of CliffsNotes version” of Taubes’s Good Calories, Bad Calories, resulting in a “particularly intriguing and readable synthesis.”[2]