I will argue in this book that the fault lies entirely with the medical orthodoxy—both the belief that excess fat is caused by consuming excess calories, and the advice that stems from it. I’m going to argue that this calories-in/calories-out paradigm of adiposity is nonsensical: that we don’t get fat because we eat too much and move too little, and that we can’t solve the problem or prevent it by consciously doing the opposite.

This is the original sin, so to speak, and we’re never going to solve our own weight problems, let alone the societal problems of obesity and diabetes and the diseases that accompany them, until we understand this and correct it.

Gary makes some incredibly powerful arguments, all backed by accepted science and research. I’m not sure why everyone still thinks that starving themselves is the best way to lose weight. It’s not, starvation diets don’t work.

An animal whose food is suddenly restricted tends to reduce its energy expenditure both by being less active and by slowing energy use in cells, thereby limiting weight loss. It also experiences increased hunger so that once the restriction ends, it will eat more than its prior norm until the earlier weight is attained.

If we starve ourselves thin and then begin to eat again our metabolism and fat cells retaliate with vengeance.

…when insulin levels go up, we store fat. When they come down, we mobilize the fat and use it for fuel. This suggests that anything that makes us secrete more insulin than nature intended, or keeps insulin levels elevated for longer than nature intended, will extend the periods during which we store fat and shorten the periods when we burn it.

Seems pretty simple and it is. Anything you ingest that raises your insulin levels is making you fat. If you eat a pound of bacon the fat and protein are absorbed by your digestive tract and shuttled to various parts of your body for use as energy. If you eat that same pound of bacon as a sandwich the carbohydrates in the bread raise your insulin levels and your body only burns the carbs while storing all the fat in an effort to normalize your blood glucose.

If you don’t read any of the other books I’ve suggested get this one.

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It (Borzoi Books)
Price: 14.02 

38 used & new available from 14.02

An eye-opening, myth-shattering examination of what makes us fat, from acclaimed science writer Gary Taubes.

In his New York Times best seller, Good Calories, Bad Calories,Taubes argued that our diet’s overemphasis on certain kinds of carbohydrates—not fats and not simply excess calories—has led directly to the obesity epidemic we face today. The result of thorough research, keen insight, and unassailable common sense, Good Calories, Bad Calories immediately stirred controversy and acclaim among academics, journalists, and writers alike. Michael Pollan heralded it as “a vitally important book, destined to change the way we think about food.”

Building upon this critical work in Good Calories, Bad Calories and presenting fresh evidence for his claim, Taubes now revisits the urgent question of what’s making us fat—and how we can change—in this exciting new book. Persuasive, straightforward, and practical, Why We Get Fat makes Taubes’s crucial argument newly accessible to a wider audience.

Taubes reveals the bad nutritional science of the last century, none more damaging or misguided than the “calories-in, calories-out” model of why we get fat, and the good science that has been ignored, especially regarding insulin’s regulation of our fat tissue. He also answers the most persistent questions: Why are some people thin and others fat? What roles do exercise and genetics play in our weight? What foods should we eat, and what foods should we avoid?

Packed with essential information and concluding with an easy-to-follow diet, Why We Get Fat is an invaluable key in our understanding of an international epidemic and a guide to what each of us can do about it.

So, Friday night after work we loaded up the wagon and headed down to Hufstedler’s with the canoe. The customer service at Hufstedler’s was awesome. I called to see if they had any cabins available and the man on the phone said sure. He told us we could just pull in and they’d leave the door unlocked and the lights on. You can see some photos of the inside of “the party house” a bit later.

So we make the long drive down to Southern Missouri. Route 67 is currently under construction and there are multiple 30mph lane switches. The GPS is going crazy because it thinks we’re on the service road and is telling us to make u-turns and to head down country roads. We ignore it for the most part and get off at Highway 60. After a bit on the nice 4 lane divided highway we turn right on 21 because we’re looking for a beer.

We end up at some American Legion post where ordering a Captain and Diet is a great production of finding the rum. The bartender regales us with a story of how her fathers land was seized for moon shining and how they lived in a tent for five years. She has no idea where Riverton is and asks another bar patron. “Twenty miles on 160, you’ll see ‘em on the left,” is the response from a ridiculously drunk man at the bar who now wants to talk to us about his canoeing exploits. These include running Buck Hollow Spring in a stolen canoe with the rangers chasing him and getting busted by Federal Agents for smoking weed. He tells us that they had been smoking but weren’t when they got arrested so they shoulda just let him go. There was some other stuff about being careful and watching out for river patrol if we were going to throw bottles in the river. We leave quickly.

We finally arrive at Hufsteder’s and as promised the sign out front is glowing. It was more of a reflective paint thing than an actual glow but close enough. The house also has the lights on and the door unlocked.

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