Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health
For decades we have been taught that fat is bad for us, carbohydrates better, and that the key to a healthy weight is eating less and exercising more. Yet despite this advice, we have seen unprecedented epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Taubes argues that the problem lies in refined carbohydrates, like white flour, easily digested starches, and sugars, and that the key to good health is the kind of calories we take in, not the number.
Carbohydrates are present in food comprising of digestible sugars and starches and indigestible cellulose and other dietary fibres. The former are the major source of energy. The sugars are in beet and cane sugar, fruits, honey, sweet corn, corn syrup, milk and milk products, etc.; the starches are in cereal grains, legumes, tubers, etc. In patients with hepatic forms of porphyria, a person should consume at least 350 mg of carbohydrate per day, or the carbohydrates should make up 60-65 per cent of the daily consumption.
Do you like the idea of bacon and eggs for breakfast? Would you enjoy a lunch of roast salmon and a satisfying dinner accompanied by wine? The Eat Fat Get Thin diet will allow you to do just that: the emphasis being on what you eat rather than how many calories the food contains. The rules are simple keep your carbohydrates to a minimum by cutting out bread, potatoes and cereals, leave out the sugar, eat only the good fats and concentrate on protein rich foods.
