On the other hand, not eating for days doesn't sound much fun.īut it turns out you don't need to starve yourself to get into ketosis. Being in ketosis, then, does sound like a great way to burn off the fat. Our metabolism then switches to fat-burning, and converts stored fat molecules into ketone bodies that can power our muscles and brain because the glucose has run out. Normally, we only enter ketosis (where ketone bodies accumulate in the blood) when we starve ourselves – not just overnight or by missing a meal, but for several days at time. Bizarrely named “ketone bodies” are actually molecules that act as the body’s natural back-up fuel supply when glucose is scarce.

Packed with essential information and concluding with an easy-to-follow diet, Why We Get Fat is an invaluable key in our understanding of an international epidemic and a guide to what each of us can do about it.Well, the principle makes sense. He also answers the most persistent questions: Why are some people thin and others fat? What roles do exercise and genetics play in our weight? What foods should we eat, and what foods should we avoid? Taubes reveals the bad nutritional science of the last century, none more damaging or misguided than the “calories-in, calories-out” model of why we get fat, and the good science that has been ignored, especially regarding insulin’s regulation of our fat tissue. Persuasive, straightforward, and practical, Why We Get Fat makes Taubes’s crucial argument newly accessible to a wider audience. Michael Pollan heralded it as “a vitally important book, destined to change the way we think about food.”īuilding upon this critical work in Good Calories, Bad Calories and presenting fresh evidence for his claim, Taubes now revisits the urgent question of what’s making us fat-and how we can change-in this exciting new book.

The result of thorough research, keen insight, and unassailable common sense, Good Calories, Bad Calories immediately stirred controversy and acclaim among academics, journalists, and writers alike. In his New York Times best seller, Good Calories, Bad Calories, Taubes argued that our diet’s overemphasis on certain kinds of carbohydrates-not fats and not simply excess calories-has led directly to the obesity epidemic we face today. An eye-opening, myth-shattering examination of what makes us fat, from acclaimed science writer Gary Taubes.

Why we get fat and what to do about it