Gary Taubes is the author of five books, including The Case for Keto: Rethinking Weight Control and the Science and Practice of Low-Carb/High-Fat Eating and The Case Against Sugar. He is the co-founder of the Nutrition Science Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to improving the quality of nutrition research. As an unconventional thinker and investigative & science journalist, Gary questions established thought and prevailing wisdom on obesity, nutrition, and how scientists do their work. Gary has been awarded numerous recognitions for his journalism, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, among many others.

Gary joins me to explore the history of obesity research and the dangers of dogmatic thinking in the scientific community. He describes the physiology of obesity, including the roles of hormones and enzymes in the body’s ability to accumulate and store fat. He explains how carbohydrates can lead to obesity and how a low-carb, high-fat diet can address it. He also delves into the moral implications in the view that obesity is the result of energy imbalance and describes the interplay of assumptions and terminologies in science and writing.

“A ketogenic diet minimizes insulin, reducing the fat stored in your tissue and burns them as fuel.” – Gary Taubes

This week on The School for Good Living Podcast:

• The fundamental laws of obesity research
• How the view that energy imbalance causes obesity leads to fat-shaming
• Obesity as a fat-trapping disorder and the physiology of fat accumulation
• The role of insulin and its secretion in obesity and diabetes
• Using ketogenic and low-carb, high-fat diets in response to obesity
• The history of obesity research and how dogmatic belief systems perpetuate themselves
• Why Gary devoted his life to his work as an investigative journalist and how he transitioned to journalism from physics
• What pathological science means and the dangers of groupthink
• The importance of accuracy of terminologies in science and writing and how assumptions get embedded in terminology
• Adopting the ketogenic approach in vegan, vegetarian, and other plant-based diets
• The appearance of Western diseases in people who transition from their traditional eating habits to the Western diet
• The presence of obesity in impoverished populations
• Why Gary writes in the morning and what his writing process looks like
• The value of writing with a specific reader in mind and Gary’s advice for people who want to be writers

Resources Mentioned:

• The Case for Keto: Rethinking Weight Control and the Science and Practice of Low-Carb/High-Fat Eating by Gary Taubes
• The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes
• Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes
• Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
• The Sweet Science by AJ Liebling
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins
• KeHo Foods

Connect with Gary Taubes:

• Website
• Gary Taubes on Facebook
• Gary Taubes on Twitter
• Gary Taubes on LinkedIn

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