The Obesity Epidemic with Gary Taubes

Gary Taubes makes a second appearance on the Friday edition of the Angriest Trainer podcast with Vinnie Tortorich.

GARY TAUBES & HIS MUST-READS

• Why We Get Fat: And What to do About It
• Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health
• Diet Delusion
• Gary is a reporter/journalist (NY Times) and a controversial guy, has done one of the best interviews in this podcast’s history
• Writing another book currently — so is Vinnie!
• Went to Harvard, Stanford, Columbia
  • Ivy League education definitely affected him

VINNIE’S READING

• Reads incredibly slowly but comprehends way more than the average person
• Scientific brain — he doesn’t assume, he knows
• Ended up allowing him to not pay attention in class, just read the books

NUTRITION WRITING

• He was doing nutritional pieces for science sections
• He looked at evidence and saw whether or not it really was supported
• Gary wrote a controversial article calling out the nutrition world for saying low fat was bad
• Initially was researching what caused the obesity epidemic?
  • Two hypotheses: high fructose corn syrup, shift to low fat diets
    • LOW FAT DIETS ended up being the issue, clear in his research
• Even in the 60’s, people weren’t fat
• In the early 1900s, only ~1/20 people were obese
• Only 2 Obese kids in Gary’s middle school
• 60’s : baked potato was fattening ; 80’s: baked potato was a heart healthy food
• At first, people didn’t realize that high fructose corn syrup was sugar
• When heart health came into question, fat became (incorrectly) bad, and carbs/sugar became (incorrectly) passable

WHY WE GET FAT

• The general idea is calorie in / calorie out and thermodynamics
• Just like you can’t think of wealth/poverty in terms of money intake vs money spent, you can’t think of calories that way either
• We secrete insulin in response to our carbohydrate intake