Gary Taubes

This review is only based on the Blinkist summary of the book. So not really a fair review in that sense. But I’ve been using the Blinkist system recently and found it fairly good when I’ve compared with the original book. Anyway, here are a few snippets from the Blinkist version which grabbed my attention.
The vast majority of nutrition experts believe that there is a simple formula to explain why people get overweight: if you consume more calories than you burn, you will get fat. [I must confess that this is my understanding and I haven’t changed my view after reading this book]. Based on this theory, one might conclude that fat people are simply lazy and gluttonous......But many cases have shown that even impoverished and underfed people can get fat. [the author gives some examples but I would have liked to see more details on how “fat” was measured in these circumstances]. At any rate, the prevailing explanatory models have not yet been able to stop the obesity epidemic or explain why, among people who share similar lifestyle, some are fat and others not at all.
Until the 1950s, hardly a doubt existed that being overweight was caused by a hormonal imbalance. But after World War II, this idea gradually disappeared, only to be replaced by the notion that being overweight was caused by an eating disorder. What was it that brought about this change? Basically it related to heart disease: Obesity, clogged arteries and heart diseases could at last be simply and plausibly explained by the intake of fatty foods. Nobody doubted the main (albeit false) logic that fat first makes us fat–and then makes us sick.
The fact that today’s medical opinion is dominated by a flawed explanatory model does not necessarily mean that doctors and nutrition experts act carelessly. Rather, they are caught in a paradigm so convincing and appealing that it is difficult to question, let alone to dismiss as false. It is not easy to uproot a firm belief.
The usual explanation for being overweight is based on the flawed logic that fat makes us fat. But we become lazy because we don’t feel like being active. And we must treat this lethargy just as we treat an excessive appetite– as a symptom of a hormonal imbalance .....Children experiencing growth spurts are serious couch potatoes–not because they are lazy, but because they are using a ton of energy to grow. They don’t want to participate in other activities because they simply don’t have enough energy left for them. [Is this right? I never noticed my kids becoming couch potatoes whilst growing through growth spurts].....By the same token, the claim that to lose weight we should exercise more while consuming fewer calories is problematic, because the more we exercise, the more energy our bodies need to function, which also boosts our appetite.
A 1983 study found that, among a group of Mexican immigrants in southern Texas who were living in poverty and performing hard labour, about 40% were overweight despite their intense physical exertion. If exercise and low caloric intake make people thin, why was obesity so common among these people? [I note that there is no mention here of the Mexican’s calorific intake....they might have been living in apparent poverty but still having a large calorific intake from corn or rice or even beef].
Exercising more and eating less will not necessarily prevent us from being overweight.
Insulin makes us fat, and carbohydrates control insulin production. Insulin makes it easier for energy to be transferred into the muscle tissue, where it is burned. At the same time, it stimulates our fatty tissue to store superfluous energy.......The amount of insulin distributed depends on the amount of carbohydrates that have been absorbed. Excess energy, whether in the form of carbohydrates, proteins or fats, is saved for potential “tough times” to come, when our bodies may have a lower external energy supply......Food rich in carbohydrates, like sweets, bread, potatoes, noodles and rice, flood our bloodstream with sugar, forcing our body to distribute insulin. But the higher the insulin level, the more strongly the body is stimulated to form fatty deposits....Therefore, carbohydrates have the biggest influence on the mechanism that regulates our accumulation of fat. In the end, they are what make us fat.
When tissues expand, whether it is a tumor forming or a child growing taller, we call this “growth,” and we know the changes are based on complex processes controlled by hormones. So why should we think differently about being overweight and isolate it from other growth processes?.....When we grow fatter, our cells are using up energy and so we feel hungrier and more lethargic– just like a child going through a growth spurt. Growing fat cells consume more energy; therefore, fat people are hungrier.
Carbohydrates, which make up a significant part of our diet today, are a relatively new addition to the human diet. Human beings have been inhabiting Earth for about 2.5 million years, but people only began eating flour around 12,000 years ago with the spread of agriculture, and the Western world did not even know what potatoes were before the discovery of America. White flour and white sugar only became a significant part of the human diet at the end of the 19th century......Before the spread of agriculture, our ancestors lived as hunters and gatherers, preferring fatty meats to quell their hunger...A recently published study analyzed the nutrition of present-day hunting and gathering cultures that had been completely isolated from the civilization of the 20th century. Their diet also consisted largely of fish and meat. Some of them even survived without eating any vegetables, fruits or grains at all. In other words, their diets were the polar opposite of our diet, of which carbohydrates make up two-thirds. [This doesn’t mean that all our ancestors lived like this...there are a huge range of environments from snowy mountains to tropical forests and presumably diets differed]........By eating foods rich in carbohydrates, which make up a very large part of our daily caloric intake, this mechanism can be thrown out of balance and result in an oversupply of insulin.....Since insulin largely regulates the formation of fat deposits, we not only get fat, we also become more susceptible to diseases like diabetes or high blood pressure, which frequently occur in conjunction with obesity. [no arguments with this logic]. Breast cancer rates for Japanese women, whilst low in Japan
perfectly mirror those of other women in the US when they migrate to USA. A similar increase in the probability of contracting these diseases is always seen among immigrant groups, completely independent of their ethnicity and the disease in question.
One clear indicator is the fact that our ancestors, like today’s isolated indigenous peoples, rarely ate carbohydrates–and neither group has suffered from diabetes or similar “Western diseases.” From this, we can conclude that it is very likely indeed that carbohydrates are causing the problem. [One could also argue that the diseases are showing up because people are living longer]. Diets limiting our caloric intake deprive us of the energy and nutrients that keep our bodies fit and help them regenerate. Such diets literally starve our bodies....Low-calorie diets almost never work– and can even damage our health. [not sure the evidence is provided for this].
Our genes decide first of all whether we put on weight and, if so, when and where we put it on. They not only determine how effectively our muscles burn energy but also how quickly we save energy for emergencies........The fine-tuning of our bodies changes over the course of our lives. The longer, more regularly and intensely we generate high levels of insulin from carbohydrate-rich foods in our bloodstream, the more resistant our musculature becomes towards insulin, which inhibits our bodies from burning energy. In turn, the body reacts to this resistance by raising the insulin dosage necessary to lower our blood sugar......Insulin resistance appear first in muscle cells and only later, if at all, in fat tissues. Insulin resistance usually increases with age, which is why older people are generally more prone to being overweight, even if they never had weight issues in the past....When we stuff ourselves with high doses of carbohydrates throughout our lives, we reinforce this process because we boost our insulin resistance.....Doctors and nutritionists generally advise against a diet without carbohydrates......However, these assumptions are flawed. These experts disregard the fact that meat is rich in essential vitamins. Furthermore, you can replace carbohydrates with vegetables, which, unlike sugar, also contain a lot of vitamins and minerals. While an unlimited consumption of meat, eggs and green vegetables secures a good nutrient supply, a reduced-calorie diet forces us to forego important nutrients.....Since carbohydrates are what make us fat and not fat itself, then it is not the culprit in heart disease risk, either. If it were, then we'd have a paradox where the risk of disease got higher as we lost weight–obviously an inverted relationship.
The short answer to the question about what we can do against getting fat is this: keep away from foods rich in carbohydrates! Simply put, we can safely assume that the sweeter the temptation, the likelier it is that it will make us fat. By contrast, the vast majority of carbohydrates contained in vegetables are linked to indigestible fibers, whereby they have a smaller impact on blood sugar and the release of insulin.
The key message of this book is: In order to understand why we get fat, we have to free ourselves from the widespread understanding that our weight is determined by our daily caloric intake and energy consumption. Instead, we should be thinking about the amount of carbohydrates we consume and the way our bodies handle them.
My take on the book: It seems to be one of those quick fix solutions ...with a single solution. Eliminate carbohydrates from our diet and we won’t get fat. I’m not convinced that we should just disregard the advice from most professional nutritionists .and simply eliminate carbohydrates from the diet. But clearly sugar and high levels of starch are major contributors to obesity and we would be wise to reduce our intake significantly. Three stars from me.… (more)

This is actually a review of the Blinkist summary of Supercommunicators so not entirely fair to the original author. However, it's a way for me to get through a large number of books and identify those where I would really like to read the original. There was a time when sugar wasn’t an additive in the majority of processed foods. The history of sugar can be traced back thousands of years to the island of New Guinea and its native people, who were the first to plant sugarcane for cultivation. It was such a luxurious status symbol that it was included, along with pearls and other treasures, in gifts that the King of Spain would habitually receive. Sugar beets can be grown just about anywhere, and once a process was developed to extract beet sugar, the ingredient became a whole lot easier to come by.
Then came the steam engine, which brought on the Industrial Revolution. As a result, a refinery in the 1920s could produce the same amount of sugar in a day that used to take a decade to produce in the 1820s.
In the early nineteenth century, people primarily used sugar to sweeten tea, coffee or other hot beverages. But with the new methods of refining sugar, sweet foods like candy, ice cream, chocolate bars and soft drinks could be mass-produced at a low cost.
One of the most revolutionary sugary products was Coca-Cola, which was invented in 1885 by John Pemberton, who originally promoted the drink as a “brain tonic.” It wasn’t until years later, when Asa Candler added more sugar and turned it into a soda, that it became the world’s most popular soft drink.
There are different kinds of calories:calories from sugar are among worst for health.
For a long time we’ve lived under two common misconceptions....One is that all calories are equal, and the other is that our calorie intake is the primary cause of unhealthy weight gain.
Most of our hormones are hard at work extracting energy from our stored fat cells. However, researchers noticed one hormone that actually performed the opposite function: insulin....So, what causes high blood sugar levels, rising insulin levels and an increase in fat storage? Eating meals that are high in carbohydrates–especially sugar.
Therefore, all calories are not created equal. Despite this evidence, the sugar industry has stayed on message and continues to push the low-calorie theory. And their persistence has been surprisingly effective,
Sugar industry has been hard at work protecting its image and fighting competition.
The sugar industry in 1928, created the Sugar Institute as part of their campaign to increase demand for sugar....The 1950s was the period in which the obesity rate in the United States began to increase and different dieting trends began to emerge. This is also when the sugar industry turned to the “a calorie is a calorie” theory and suggested that other foods be cut from one’s diet, not sugar.....So, between 1963 and 1969, the sugar industry honed in on this stipulation [other sweeteners caused cancer] and spent over $ 4 million on studies to remove the GRAS status for cyclamate.....By the end of the campaign of testing artificial sweeteners on rats, they did succeed in getting cyclamate banned.
The sugar industry has spread lies about the dangers of other foods.
You may have come across the popular assertion that saturated fat causes heart disease.
In this case, the scientist Ancel Keys was the one who popularized the link between eating fatty foods and getting heart disease.....Keys had a conflict of interest: his research was sponsored by the sugar industry....During the twentieth century, heart disease steadily increased in Western nations, alongside obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.
When they looked at the changes that had been made to typical diets and foods in these countries, the answer was clear: sugar.
Too much sugar leads to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.
When your body becomes insulin resistant, this means that the hormone can no longer store or use the glucose in your bloodstream, because the cells have become resistant. This can lead to a vicious cycle since, to lower your blood sugar levels, you need introduce more insulin into your body....It is very likely that sugar is the cause of this resistance.....100 calories of sugar will provide different results than 100 calories of fat or protein, especially in terms of insulin release....Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome are associated with just about every Western disease.
Sugar linked to a variety of diseases common in Western countries, including cancer.
In 1968, the diet of the Tokelau people consisted of coconut, pork, fish, chicken and breadfruit. Fat made up more than 50 percent of the calories and sugar only two percent, equal to about eight pounds of sugar per year. At this point, only three percent of the men and nine percent of the women were diabetic......But by 1982, with access to the mainland, the consumption of sugar had risen to 55 pounds per year. Now, 11 percent of the men and one out of every five women [I hate this change of measurement ..the figure is 20%]...who emigrated were diabetic. In addition, many were now obese and suffering from different Western diseases,
Research showed that patients who had increased levels of insulin in their blood ran a higher risk of developing cancer.
Final summary
The key message in this book: There’s a strong case to be made that sugar is a principal underlying cause of many of the diseases currently plaguing Western nations. This is primarily due to the way sugar causes insulin resistance, which multiple studies have identified as a precursor to many other diseases. This isn’t a new discovery either, as doctors have warned against the consumption of too much sugar for years. Nevertheless, the sugar industry is a powerful voice that has worked for decades to silence the truth. Actionable advice: Try to live without sugar.… (more)