Science Saturday: Why We Get Fat (John Horgan & Gary Taubes)

[themightypuck]

I really should read the book as well. I'm very skeptical of the 30% fat diet promoted by the powers that be (because, of course, that diet doesn't work for me) and I've never read anything convincing by them as to why they promote this diet. I also agree with Taubes that calories in calories out is meaningless triviality. I doubt anyone is disputing the laws of physics. The question is why do fat people eat more and exercise less. Our moral guardians seem to think it is because people are weak, stupid, or lazy but that doesn't seem very scientific to me. In fact, it raises red flags. The health morality connection comes up again and again in history and I just don't buy it. I agree with you that carbohydrates are probably not as horrible as Taubes suggests, but when I look for support for the standard position all I get are appeals to authority and cherry picking. If anything is true it is that more study is needed. Absent such study I'm not sure why the 30% fat diet gets to be the default and indeed it looks like even the powers that be are slowly upping the fat.