Gary Taubes in NYTimes: 'What Really Makes Us Fat'

By GARY TAUBES

A CALORIE is a calorie. This truism has been the foundation of nutritional wisdom and our beliefs about obesity since the 1960s.

What it means is that a calorie of protein will generate the same energy when metabolized in a living organism as a calorie of fat or carbohydrate. When talking about obesity or why we get fat, evoking the phrase “a calorie is a calorie” is almost invariably used to imply that what we eat is relatively unimportant. We get fat because we take in more calories than we expend; we get lean if we do the opposite. Anyone who tells you otherwise, by this logic, is trying to sell you something.

But not everyone buys this calorie argument, and the dispute erupted in full force again last week. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of a clinical trial by Dr. David Ludwig of Boston Children’s Hospital and his collaborators. While the media tended to treat the study as another diet trial — what should we eat to maintain weight loss? — it spoke to a far more fundamental issue: What actually causes obesity? Why do we get fat in the first place? Too many calories? Or something else?

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Anonymous

Posted: Jul 10 2012, 12:43 AM

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98214

it's the crap they put in the food...people aren't becoming fat, they're becoming bloated from the toxins and reacting to the chemicals. One reason why a third of the homeless are considered obese...

And let's not forget about the beverages, loaded with fluoride and all sorts of chemical crap. It's a no brainer...eat organic/natural, avoid anything made by Pepsi, Coke, Nestles, Tyson etc...these companies are all about taste and appearances, not ones health.

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