It wasn’t Kolata’s first drive-by. She cited Hirsch in a memorably hostile review of Taubes’ book, Good Calories, Bad Calories in October 2007, that dismissed his exhaustive reporting out of hand. (Kolata had her own, competing diet book out at the time, Rethinking Thin, meaning that she probably shouldn’t have gotten the assignment.) From her patronizing lede (“Gary Taubes is a brave and bold science journalist who does not accept conventional wisdom”) to her weirdly personal ending (“I am sorry, I am not convinced”), she knew something was wrong with the book, only she didn’t know what. “[T]he problem with a book like this one,” she wrote, “which goes on and on in great detail about experiments new and old in areas ranging from heart disease to cancer to diabetes, is that it can be hard to know what has been left out.”
Poor Taubes. No one warned him that 600 pages of evidence were never going to be enough. The theory that weight gain boils down “calories-in, calories-out” is the last man standing in the diet wars. The principle anchors the comforting American belief that personal responsibility explains all of our ills. It validates all that wasted time on the treadmill that people like Kolata and others endorse. It keeps us watching shows like The Biggest Loser. It leaves the door open to low-calorie, high-carbohydrate food products that make the economy hum, are portable, do not require we learn to cook, make children stop crying, and taste good. Any efforts at reporting science to the contrary will always have a rough road.
The tough part about gaining weight is it not only affects you physically it affects you mentally and emotionally. Society can be cruel when it comes to this scenerio. I personally have several friends who are currently overweight. I can personally say I love them despite societies views and opinions. A site i go to view reviews of weight loss is http://harrisreviews.com. I remember when I was 30lbs overweight and the way I was treated. Not cool.
#1 Posted by jay, CJR on Wed 1 Aug 2012 at 10:46 AM
I cannot say this woman's name without pronouncing it Giña Kolata.
#2 Posted by zack, CJR on Wed 1 Aug 2012 at 10:53 AM
Gary Taubes is my Jesus, Zappa, and Ron Paul all wrapped into one... But I am not religious, so let's just say Zappa, Ron Paul and The Dog Whisperer. Taubes saved my life -- that's for sure.. The establishment always thrashes like a netted, wild crocodile when challenged with Taubes' ideas---then forced to submit when they realize the truth.
#3 Posted by Tyler, CJR on Wed 1 Aug 2012 at 11:20 PM
Is Good Calories, Bad Calories the most important book written in the medical sciences in the past 50 years? If not, it runs close. Certainly gets my vote.
#4 Posted by Tim Noakes, CJR on Thu 2 Aug 2012 at 01:19 AM
Gina Kolata, Dr. Oz, Dr. Ornish and others if their ilk will never get it. They are largely ineducable. It pains them to think deeply. It hurts them to have to read more. It belittles them too harshly to be able to accept that much of what they've written is invalid and two dimensional.
Whaddya gonna do?
#5 Posted by Fred Hahn, CJR on Thu 2 Aug 2012 at 01:16 PM
It really gets my goat whenever people pooh-pooh low carb/Atkins'esque diets and say that all the weight that is lost is simply water weight, or that due to satiety, those eating this way are under-reporting their caloric intakes, so they have to be eating under a set amount of calories a day.
I lost 105 pounds in a year and a half eating coffee with heavy cream, chicken with the skin on, steak, butter, eggs, bacon, salads, vegetables, and some berries. I eschewed sugar, flour, and high carb veg/fruits. That was NOT 105 pounds of water!!! I was eating about 2500 calories a day, with my average daily consumption being broken down into 75% fat, 15% protein, 10% carbohydrates. If it were simple "calories in/calories out" I should have GAINED weight, instead of loosing almost 2-3 pounds a week.
We need more people like Gary. I hope that one day soon the medical establishment wakes up and realizes he's been right all along and gives him the long-awaited apology he deserves.
#6 Posted by Shannon Hodder, CJR on Tue 14 Aug 2012 at 02:38 AM
Gary Taubes' work changed my life and set me on a journey of reading nutrition and health research as well as eating and exercising differently. However, Taubes himself says that he "fell through the looking glass" when he discovered the research on carbohydrates and weight loss which has been ignored by the mainstream (American Heart Assoc, American Diabetes Assoc, etc). But I do think that Gary has remained focused on the low-carb meme for too long and it is time for him to move on. I think his physics background has tempted him to want to reduce the problem of obesity to single, basic cause, as one would do in hard sciences. Gary refers to Occam's razor in this regard in his book GCBC - that "other things being equal, a simpler explanation is better than a more complex one." At first, when I ready GCBC, I thought this was a very useful approach, but now, having read more widely, I have begun to see that biological systems are very complex and adaptable. More than one approach can lead to the same result. Indeed, there are no doubt elite athletes who are vegetarians, vegans, omnivores, paleo followers, low-carbers, etc. And they all perform at extraordinary levels. On paper, maybe one or two of these diets are better, but in practice, individuals need to determine what's best for them. Perhaps the simplest explanation is still preferable, but it seems clear than there is no single path to optimal health/ weight loss. Arriving at your destination takes each person along a different route, in a way similar to that of creative journeys or endeavours. Now it is time for Gary Taubes to change his direction away from his reductive view that refined carbohydrate restriction is the only truly effective path to weight loss. He is one of the most interesting and intelligent health writers working today. I would like to see him come back through the looking glass and apply his formidable research, writing and discernment skills to other aspects of the problem of health. Having also read Gina Kolata's book , Rethinking Thin, it is clear that Taubes has worked much harder and produced a great many more insights in his book, Good Calories Bad Calories. It is unfortunate that Kolata will not offer her readers more insight into Taubes' fascinating work, but chooses to dismiss it instead.
#7 Posted by Jennifer D, CJR on Tue 14 Aug 2012 at 07:12 AM
While I lean toward the position that Taubes takes, I have a bit of a problem with the fact this this article seems to be implying that mainstream medical and nutritional opinion has since moved to be in agreement with Taubes. Maybe I'm out of touch but I really don't think that is the case.
I appreciate the fact that the article includes many links, including the exchange between Taubes and Fumento (and after reading, I find Taubes the more credible one). While many of these links show there is scientific support for these ideas, that does not equate to a consensus since you can find studies and opinions supporting both sides. However if links can be provided that show the mainstream consensus has indeed swung the way this article implies, I'd love to see them. Short of those this article seems pretty biased toward a minority view and trying to imply the debate is over.
#8 Posted by Eric S, CJR on Tue 18 Sep 2012 at 11:11 AM