Yep ... after reading your post, I read the reviews on Taubes' book and that is why I ordered it.Daffney_Gillfin wrote:Thanks!DreamStalker wrote:
Congrats on the weight loss!
I just ordered Taubes' new book from Amazon to add to my growing collection of food/diet related info ... thanks for the heads up
I hope you noticed that it's not really a diet book in the the sense it will tell you what to eat and not to eat. It's more about diet research, politics, and how we got to where we're at today in diet recommendations. It can be dry, and I admit much of it went over my head. I end up reading some pages more than once, and have even gone back to re-read entire sections. I plan to re-read the entire book after I finish it. Probably not right away though. It's a lot like reading Lyle McDonald's first ketogenic diet book, but with more history. If you read the reviews on Amazon with low ratings, then you probably already know this.
I'm not interested in fad diet books with specific recipies and eating instructions ... and I don't weigh my food or count calories either. I am aware of the relative caloric content of the various types of food that I'm willing to consume and basically use the size of my hands/fists and my understanding of density to determine the volumetric amounts for any single meal.
I am more interested in reading information about how the human body uses food (science/research), how governement and corporate business misuse food to poison us and the environment (economics/politics), and how food has interacted with our genetics, culture, and civilization (evolution/history). I'm just finishing up William Duffy's classic, "Sugar Blues" and started on Michael Pollan's newest book "In Defense of Food".
I have a growing library and the important common elements between all of them is that refined carbs and processed foods are bad for health, natural whole and organic foods are good for health, and the First Law of Thermodynamics cannot be broken (calories in and out determine body mass) ... so regular and frequent movement of the body is a neccessary part of our evolution.
BTW - I tried the Atkins mehtod back in 2004 and lost about 30 lbs but then stopped when I began to notice it was not good for my overall health. Ketogenics works but I don't think it is a good way of life for some people (works quite well for Eskimos though ).