Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
While reading this minutely researched, well-presented scientific look at the entire debate regarding calories, health and obesity, I found myself consistently angered by a medical establishment interested more in accolades and advancement of careers than in solid research and the health of people.
If Taubes' research is accurate, and it certainly seems well-documented, there are hundreds of thousands of people struggling with weight, dropping considerable cash on questionable treatments, diet plans and exercise regimens that have no scientific basis whatsoever to either improve health, or relieve people of poundage on a permanent basis.
I'd recommend every family physician (particularly mine, Dr. Phillip James), dietician, bariatric surgeon, psychologist -- in short anyone involved in health care -- to read this book. While it won't answer your questions (in fact I have more questions now than when I started), it will stimulate you to investigate further and perhaps find some truth behind the myths of obesity.
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While it is certainly true that there are great numbers of people throwing away money on questionable weight-loss schemes, I don't see how that has anything to do with the medical establishment. If people ask their doctors for help with weight loss, they will receive sound evidence-based advice. The problem is, that advice isn't necessarily easy to follow for most of us, so we look for easier answers. We waste money on The South Beach Diet, or The Atkins Diet, or The Master Cleanse Diet instead of following our doctors' advice.
ReplyDeleteThe point is, the advice given by doctors is NOT sound, nor is it evidence-based. The medical establishment simply regurgitates questionable research and practices that have no scientific basis. Inform yourself. You'll be astonished.
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