Lots of Taube’s assessment of nutrition comes from research done in Europe, specifically Germany and Austria. The implication (our working assumption) is that if someone gets obese it’s because this regulation has been thrown out of whack not that it’s ceased to exist. What I mean by “regulated” is that our bodies, when healthy, are working diligently to maintain a set amount of fat in our fat tissue - not too much and not too little - and that this, in turn, is used to assure a steady supply of fuel to the cells. This is true even though some people fatten so easily that it’s virtually impossible to imagine. The First Law:īody fat is carefully regulated, if not exquisitely so. In honor of the laws of thermodynamics that they’re replacing, we’ll call these the laws of adiposity. Getting fat is not a “calories-in/calories-out” problem, or “eat too much, exercise too little” problem. My collected notes from Why we get fat: and what to do about it # It’s me editorializing to load the context of the quote. In general, these are my decisions, not the author’s.

I may choose to italicize or make bold portions of the quotations from the books. Sometimes they’ll extend for several paragraphs When I quote the author, it will be denoted like such: I will be freely interjecting my thoughts throughout the rest of this review. Given how prevalent being overweight or obese is in our society, the small investment of reading a few books that might point one towards a proper course of action has ludicrously high returns. Much of the fitness equation is “don’t have extra body fat”, so to that end, I’ve been doing reading on the topic.

I’d like to retain this fitness for a long time.

For a variety of reasons, I have a tolerably high degree of physical fitness. My notes and a write-up on The Case Against SugarĪs I explained in that post, I find it helpful to do a ‘deep dive’ on some of the books I want to be deeply influenced by. I read it shortly after reading The Case Against Sugar. I recently read Why We Get Fat, by Gary Taubes.

What counts as “sugar” for the purposes of this book (and your life).

Low-carb/high-fat diets are not bad for you.

If insulin matters so much, how do we use that to our advantage?.

Insulin is the “god-level” hormone that regulates fat accumulation or fat loss.

Why we get fat and what to do about it