Good Calories, Bad Calories

After months to finish it I can finally say this is one of the densest books that I have ever read. The author Gary Taubes is a famous journalist who shares through his very own detailed research, full of uncountable references, a story of how the major concepts regarding weight gain, obesity, diabetes and dieting evolved in the past few decades. Even though I was pretty sure that I would find it very biased as most of the mainstream nutrition books, I was very surprised to find out that in fact, while it is clear his book supports a low carbohydrate approach as a strategy for better health, he did not do it by pointing fingers at others, instead, he invested his time in writing, collecting data of what he feels is more relevant to his arguments and leaving it up to the reader to decide whether what he says makes sense. For my part, regarding the reduction of carbohydrates, mainly refined ones, I can say that I believe it makes sense and I feel the benefits in my own diet.

This book catalogs Taube's meticulous inquiry into the past century of nutrition science, politics, and policy. What he unearths from his investigation is an avalanche of bad science and politics that probably pushed back back the scientific progress of health by at least 50 years. Completely shocking and in my opinion one of the most important books in the field of health/nutrition ever written.

This book changed my life. I have been able to keep off over 50 pounds of weight since reading this book. Somewhat long and technical, but very informative.