The talk of the new release Good Calories, Bad Calories is certainly everywhere. So much to the point that I am almost irritated with myself for writing about it but still I have to talk about it because its just the stupidest thing I have ever read and whats worse is the trouble it can cause.
Here are the basic ideas of the book...
The 11 Critical Conclusions of Good Calories, Bad Calories:
1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, does not cause heart disease.
2. Carbohydrates do, because of their effect on the hormone insulin. The more easily-digestible and refined the carbohydrates and the more fructose they contain, the greater the effect on our health, weight, and well-being.
3. Sugars—sucrose (table sugar) and high fructose corn syrup specifically—are particularly harmful. The glucose in these sugars raises insulin levels; the fructose they contain overloads the liver.
4. Refined carbohydrates, starches, and sugars are also the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, and the other common chronic diseases of modern times.
5. Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating and not sedentary behavior.
6. Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter any more than it causes a child to grow taller.
7. Exercise does not make us lose excess fat; it makes us hungry.
8. We get fat because of an imbalance—a disequilibrium—in the hormonal regulation of fat tissue and fat metabolism. More fat is stored in the fat tissue than is mobilized and used for fuel. We become leaner when the hormonal regulation of the fat tissue reverses this imbalance.
9. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage. When insulin levels are elevated, we stockpile calories as fat. When insulin levels fall, we release fat from our fat tissue and burn it for fuel.
10. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.
11. The fewer carbohydrates we eat, the leaner we will be.
Let's Talk about this 1 by 1...
#1-Okay I will bite and I agree. Saturated Fat on its own does not cause heart disease. Still there are better fats to take in, but moving on.
#2-This is beyond ridiculous and I love how somehow all human have magically become insulin resistant out of nowhere. Also no studies show this.
#3-Insulin levels are raised by sugars period be it a banana or HFCS. Processed chemicals have never been a good thing but there is still not even scientific proof of a difference in HFCS other than a pretty meh study on soda.
#4-Um yeah no study for this
#5-WOW, amazing the the physics law of energy does not apply! Okay i want everyone right now to go out and eat pounds of steaks, no no guess what according to Gary here you can eat as many steaks as you want and never gain fat!
#6-Oh okay. Who wants to be the tester for me on this one. In fact I will personally donate to the peer watched study in which that we feed people 5000 calories a day in steak and see if they don't gain fat. Remember steak has no carbs and is loaded with saturated fat and thats okay.
#7-Another no brainer-no exercise does nothing to lose fat if you aren't in a deficit of energy. If you are stuffing your face you can move all you want but your right Gary nothing will happen. Now keep eating those steaks and not moving.
#8-We get fat because we don't move enough and stuff our faces.
#9-It isn't nearly that black and white, there are also more hormones in the body then insulin though you wouldn't think Gary thought so. And also did you just say that excess calories didn't cause gain Gary, well didn't ya?
#10-This is actually a contradiction in the same sentence. An increase of hunger in a receptor sense can only be brought on by an increase in internal temperature and metabolic activity. So really in this sentence he is saying that carbs raise your metabolism. Oh and its not your fault that you eat and don't move, its the carbs fault!
#11-You heard him, again calories have no relevance to weight gain or loss what so ever.
Man I missed the day of the low fat craze. I can't wait till this one is over.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
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3 comments:
I haven't read Good Calories Bad Calories yet, but one thing is for sure everyone is talking about it. Some of the points you bring up are addressed by Dr Michael Eades (Protein Power) in his latest blog entry. www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=957 I know Dr. Eades is a Protein apologist but he references at least two studies that have bearing on the good calories bad calories concept.
I can't remember the percentage but there is some percentage of people that can consume carbohydrates with little to no negative effect. My wife is in that category where I am much more sensitive to them. I personally have found the best results from a more Paleo based approach than a contemporary low carb diet. My main dietary goal is to cut out processed carbs and consume my carbs from fruit and vegetables. I think that your point that the body doesn't know HFCS from an apple is valid conceptually in that if you are trying to lose weight you have to be aware of the caloric value and insulin effect of everything you eat. Personally I think HFCS is more dangerous because of the concentrated amount contained in soda's and the random amounts that are in all sorts of foods that you just wouldn't expect.
I looked for an email button and didn't see it, and if you want to take this off your comments I understand as I was not trying to engage you in a public debate. I mainly wanted to share the Dr. Eades piece with you.
I really enjoy your writings and look forward to reading your blog each day. I also just downloaded H.E.L.L. for my wife as she told me she was ready for a new challenge in her workout.
Thanks for the great information.
BTW I think Jason has you so far on the headlines.
Hi Leigh! I was going to email you directly, but thought I'd add to this page instead. I am reading Taubes' book now. I was very skeptical at first. But he has some compelling evidence that overweight people are often undernourished - because of the presence of too many carbohydrates in the diet. The simplest way to put it is that if you eat 2000Kcal a day, if most of that is protein and fat, you are likely to be lean. If the ratio has an equal ratio of
carbs to fat to protein, you're less likely to be lean . I haven't seen him write much about fruit.
Have you read his epilogue? it's useful. Also, his findings are somewhat (but not entirely) consistent with what Diane Schwarzbein and Julia Ross argue in their books: that overweight =undernourished, and that carbs are the only macronutrient that needs to be measured and carefully controlled.
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