NUTRITION

In this exclusive preview of Gary Taubes’ new book, Taubes explains why most of us have a fraught relationship with food and a flawed understanding of what makes a healthy diet. Here Taubes argues, “The existing evidence says that if you have metabolic syndrome, if you’re getting fatter or are already obese, if you’re prediabetic or already diabetic, avoiding carbohydrate-rich foods and replacing them with fat may be the single healthiest thing you can do for yourself." He adds: "No one can guarantee what happens in the long run. … Anyone who makes an ironclad guarantee for any way of eating—that one diet will assuredly make you live longer than others ... is probably selling something."

In this exclusive preview of Gary Taubes’ new book, Taubes explains why most of us have a fraught relationship with food and a flawed understanding of what makes a healthy diet. In 2002, Taubes discussed recent research findings on the relative benefits of a low-carb, high-fat diet in an article in New York Times Magazine. Since then, he writes, “close to one hundred, if not more, clinical trials have published results, and they confirm these observations with remarkable consistency. The trials are still incapable of telling us whether embracing LCHF/ketogenic eating will extend our lives (compared to other patterns of eating the authorities might recommend), but they continue to challenge, relentlessly, the conventional thinking on the dangers of high-fat diets, and they tell us that in the short term, this way of eating is safe and beneficial.”

In this exclusive preview of Gary Taubes’ new book, Taubes explains why most of us have a fraught relationship with food and a flawed understanding of what makes a healthy diet. “‘Is it safe?’ is always one of two ultimate questions when considering a change of diet or lifestyle, particularly with the goal of preventing chronic disease,” Taubes writes. Is a ketogenic diet safe? Is a plant-based diet safe? Is saturated fat dangerous? Here Taubes evaluates the various methods we have for answering these questions, from personal experience and anecdotal evidence to clinical trials.

In this exclusive preview of Gary Taubes’ new book, Taubes explains why most of us have a fraught relationship with food and a flawed understanding of what makes a healthy diet. “Despite all my reporting and my journalistic skepticism, my thoughts on the nature of a healthy diet were a product of the nutritional belief system” rather than scientific evidence, Taubes writes. In this excerpt, he describes how he has come to think about health and diet trends in more recent years and shares his recommendations for navigating continually evolving nutrition advice.

Whole, unprocessed carbohydrate sources have significant health and performance benefits that might go unnoticed with macronutrient counting. For example, a doughnut and an orange can both provide the carbohydrate grams one needs, but other constituents should be considered. Even honey has more health value compared to table sugar due to the vitamins and minerals it contains.

Training and nutrition are the two most powerful mechanisms for improving human health, but they exert their influence from opposite directions. Diet supplies energy and is the source of the body’s structural components. Exercise consumes energy and actually breaks down the body in various ways. Here, Tyler Hass explores how to optimize both mechanisms by dialing the body’s activity and nutrition patterns up or down.

Eating for wellness relates to the quality of food. Eating for performance relies on a combination of food quality and quantity.

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.

A survey of economic data across 42 European countries found no relationship between heart disease risk and eating animal protein and animal fat.

Frederick Allen, Elliott Joslin, Louis “Harry” Newburgh, and Phil Marsh were pioneers in the treatment of diabetes before the discovery of insulin. This 2006 review of their methods and outcomes found that all four successfully treated diabetic patients with a diet that closely resembles modern high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets.

"Today, most doctors, dietitians, and even diabetes specialists consider type 2 diabetes to be a chronic and progressive disease — a life sentence with no possibility of parole. But the truth, as Dr. Fung reveals in this paradigm-shifting book, is that type 2 diabetes is reversible."

A 2011 article takes a historical look at the use of extremely low-calorie diets in diabetic patients prior to the discovery of insulin.

In this 2012 commentary, Robert Lustig and colleagues claim sugar is similar to tobacco and alcohol in that it is unavoidable, toxic, abuse-forming, and societally harmful. They argue anti-sugar measures are warranted.

A 2019 in vitro study found chronic fructose exposure increases insulin release by pancreatic β-cells, which may contribute to obesity and insulin resistance over time.

Many dieters believe a calorie is a calorie and operating at a calorie deficit is the key to weight loss. However, counting calories is an ineffective and often unhealthy diet method. The body processes calories from different sources in different ways, and assuming all calories are equal often leads to overconsumption of refined carbohydrates. Tyler Hass explains why eating high-quality foods and exercising with high intensity is the most effective way to drive favorable changes in body composition.

A low-carbohydrate, low-calorie diet significantly improved HbA1c in diabetics over 12 weeks.

What we eat (quality), how much we eat (quantity), and when we eat (chrononutrition) all affect our health and performance. However, compared to the other two factors, chrononutrition is arguably the weakest of the three. In this installment of his series on meal timing, Tyler Hass explains why clever timing schemes are not a silver bullet and should be understood as a means to squeeze that last 5-10% of optimization out of a good diet and exercise program.

“Nutrition plays a critical role in your fitness. Proper nutrition can amplify or diminish the effect of your training efforts. Effective nutrition is moderate in protein, carbohydrate, and fat.”

Is breakfast the most important meal of the day? Do late-night snacks lead to weight gain? Tyler Hass examines common myths about meal timing and explains which are supported by the scientific literature and which have been debunked. He also describes the relationship between circadian rhythm and metabolism.

Twelve weeks on a higher-quality diet led to significant improvements in measures of major depression in this small randomized controlled trial.