In fact, Taubes convincingly shows that much of what is believed about nutrition and health is based on the flimsiest science.

As a result, the book can be hard to read, tedious in many places and repetitious. does not imply that they agree with all or even part of the thesis set forth in this book.” Taubes does not bow to the current fashion for narrative nonfiction, instead building his argument case by case, considering the relationship between dietary fat and heart disease, carbohydrates and disease, diet and obesity. He also says he interviewed more than 600 doctors, researchers and administrators, though he adds that “the appearance of their names in the text. The bibliography alone goes on for more than 60 pages.

Taubes spent five years working on the book, which runs to more than 450 pages. When it comes to determining the ideal diet, he says, we have to “confront the strong possibility that much of what we’ve come to believe is wrong.” The best diet, he argues, is one loaded with protein and fat but very low in carbohydrates. He expands that thesis in the new book, arguing that the same confused reasoning and poor science has led to misconceptions about the relation between diet and heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, dementia, diabetes and, again, obesity. As a result, people are confused and misinformed about the relationship between what they eat and their risk of growing fat. His thesis, first introduced in a much-debated article in The New York Times Magazine in 2002 challenging the low-fat diet orthodoxy, is that nutrition and public health research and policy have been driven by poor science and a sort of pigheaded insistence on failed hypotheses. In “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” he says what he wants is a fair hearing and rigorous testing for ideas that might seem shocking. Gary Taubes is a brave and bold science journalist who does not accept conventional wisdom.

Gary taubes why we get fat summary