Comments on: good calories, bad calories

By: malvasia bianca » Blog Archive » low-carb diets

malvasia bianca » Blog Archive » low-carb diets — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:13:23 +0000

[...] while back, I mentioned that the book Good Calories, Bad Calories had gotten me curious about low-carb diets; [...]

By: david carlton

david carlton — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:56:23 +0000

No, I’ve heard about them, but haven’t yet read them. I’ll stick them on the list…

By: Jim Blandy

Jim Blandy — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:01:22 +0000

You’ve read Michael Pollan’s two books — The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food — haven’t you? They’re directly about how to choose a good diet, in light of the chaos that is dietary research and reporting. I didn’t see them in your book database.

By: david carlton

david carlton — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:31:26 +0000

The book does address the “majority of overweight people are never going to be not be overweight” issue, for what it’s worth. I’m not completely convinced by its take there, but I’m more convinced by its take than by the moralistic “starve yourself or you’re a bad person” viewpoint towards overweight people that we so often see…

By: Jordan

Jordan — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:20:23 +0000

Interesting. I remember reading the NYTimes magazine story by Taubes about a year ago that forms part of this book. He sure _sounded_ like a crackpot — lots of vague stuff about the suppression of unorthodox nutrition science by the establishment without any clear story about why this suppression would take place. But maybe the argument works better in a longer form.

My own impression was that the best science says that the large majority of overweight people are never going to not be overweight, whether they try to restrict fat, try to restrict calories, try to restrict carbs, increase exercise, whatever. But it’s hard to imagine trying to sell a paperback on that theme!