Customer Reviews
What happens when someone checks the facts - By: Book Addict, 04 May 2008 
I had never had a problem with diet until I married an obese individual who was ordered to address the overweight or suffer the consequences, (loss of job, diabetes, death etc..) Under the supposed guidance of a medicallly trained nutritionist I changed our diet to what is generallly referred to as a low GI diet. Never overweight myself, we both lost weight. My spouse lost 85lbs & I fell to a weight barely in the safe range of low weight. I was constantly hungry & felt weak despite working out at the gym & other strength building activity. I even started to become sensitive to some of the 'good' foods that form part of this regime (in particular oily fish, oats, certain fruits & muesli). I knew something was wrong when I couldn't face my meals - despite raging hunger. I then went through a phase of binging on cakes & sweets - I put on weight rapidly & was still ravenous. Why had I of alll people suddenly grown fat? I read Gary Taubes's book very carefully. He nails the problem perfectly. In doing so he is very even handed & appears not to take sides. If you pay attention however, the best diet advice is there. Just remember the name Banting & you can't go wrong. A brilliant resource for anyone prepared to take the time to digest it.
Good sence Good advice - By: marcus, 20 Nov 2007 This is probably the most useful book on the impact of diet on health you'll ever read. Partly because Taubes succinctly overviews the diet-heart controversy, & partly because, generallly, he manages to explain to the layman the research & its implications. The great value for me was his development of the alternative theory to the saturated fat/cholesterol hypothesis dominant now since the 1960s. Although the alternative carbohydrate hypothesis is not new, Taubes interviews scientists & their reviews the research since the 1950s to the present, showing how the specialists that are studying blood components in relation to the major diseases - cardiovascular, obesity & diabetes - demonstrate that by far the best predictors of any of these "diseases of civilisation" are certain fractions of blood lipoproteins & fats known as triglycerides - not cholesterol or total LDL (demonised in popular health policy statements). Guest what? These "VLDLs" & triglycerides are only produced in quantities associated with disease through a high carb low fat diet.... the very diet that the "experts" tell to use.
Go unrifined! - By: Dobrin, 19 Oct 2007 
The first impression may be that Gary Taubes actuallly supports the well known Atkins' Diet. However, the author has no problem with unrefined carbohydrates such as potatoes, carrots, apples, brown rice, whole wheat, etc. He also points out that dietary fats are not the evil they have been made out to be for a long time. Instead, the refined carbohydrates 'bread made from refined white flour, white rice, refined white sugar, etc.' may be the real dietary evil. In a nutshell the author's message is that in order to get rid of unwanted pounds one needs to focus on getting rid of refined carbohydrates from the diet. It seems to me like this message is taken straight from the book Can We Live 150 by M. Tombak. In fact Dr. Tombak doesn't hesitate to classify refined carbohydrates as nothing else but poisons & his chapter on obesity & proper food combination is probably alll you need to know to control your weight. Both Taubes & Tombak agree on the fact that moderation is always the best course.
