Freakish Fat-Phobia Folly Finally Falling Out Of Favor
Filed under: In The News — @ November 12, 2007
Sometimes it takes a singular event to shake people back into reality when the lines between fact and fiction become blurry and unclear. That’s precisely what has happened in the last six weeks since the hottest health book of the year Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes was released to the public with all the unconventional, counterintuitive information contain therein that was gathered from more than five years worth of research. And the evidence is speaking for itself as people are finally being told the truth about carbohydrate restriction and how eating fat, even saturated fat, is indeed an essential part of a healthy lifestyle.
Best of all, real lives are being changed for the better because of this remarkable new book. Take a look at the following e-mail I received from a reader whose shared how her life was forever changed for the better as a result of reading Taubes’ masterpiece. Here’s what she wrote to me in her e-mail:
Dear Jimmy,
I have never written on a blog or to a blogger before in my life. But, as I recently found your blog site and have been reading through your posts, I wanted to share my story with you.
I have ALWAYS bought into the low-fat hype as gospel, ever since I was 19 and went through a depressed period in my life that caused me to develop anorexia. Now, granted, most people don’t take the low-fat diet to that extreme (I am 5’4″ and at my LOWEST was 85 pounds!), but the bottom line is that because I was combining such a low calorie/low fat diet with obsessive exercise, it was relatively easy for me to lose weight and keep it off. Of course I use the term ‘easy’ in the loosest definition imaginable. I was starving myself to death because of emotional issues – trying to stay healthy was the furthest thing from my mind.
It didn’t help that my family is made up of emotional eaters – my mother and two of my sisters are very overweight and my other sister is like me – starving herself to stay in control of her life.
Even later, through my early to mid-twenties as my weight stabilized around 105 to 110 or so, I was able to stay at that weight while eating extremely low fat/high carb food. But, again, I was physically hungry all the time, not to mention pretty NUTS – planning out my meals by the minute, counting calories obsessively, refusing to let even a sliver of anything that might have fat in it past my lips. I thought if I didn’t make it to the gym on a particular day, I would surely wind up gaining weight.
As I got older, I was able to work through a lot of my issues regarding food (although I was still a control freak about it) and even gained enough weight to be considered pretty normal looking. I got married and had my son (thank GOD my body recovered from the abuse I put it through in order to be able to carry my baby.) But, still even after having him, I was able to lose the weight pretty quickly with a low fat diet. Still obsessing over whatever I put into my mouth, though. Still angry with myself if I couldn’t exercise every day and avoid gaining weight from the tiny sliver of pie I might have allowed myself the night before.
Now, I am 33 and divorced and for the first time in my life, I was suddenly having difficulties with my weight (like, I am up to 127 – the horror!). So alarming for someone like me – who has remained in strict control of my weight and my life for so long. I had recently starting dating (and cooking) for someone I cared about tremendously and I realized that my diet had changed dramatically to include many more carbs than I was used to eating on my own. You know the way to a man’s heart is his stomach, right? 
My mother sent me an e-mail a few weeks ago about the Gary Taubes book. At first, I dismissed it – the whole idea about it was so crazy – eat a lot of fat to get skinny? Aerobic exercise is meaningless for weigh loss? I would be challenging the very foundations of my identity by even entertaining these notions. But, whether it was my recent inability to lose weight or just the timing – I bought the book to check it out.
I started reading everything I could about Taubes and his opinions and his research. And, it was like someone suddenly pointing out to me that the only reason I thought the sky was blue was because everyone on TV and in magazines and on the radio was telling you so. There was actually a good possibility that it was green. It was literally blowing my mind to think that I (and most of the health gurus) had been totally wrong. That all this low fat stuff was based on shoddy research and corporate agendas. And, as I read through the book IT MADE SENSE.
I started eating the low carb/high fat way (which was REALLY REALLY hard for me….) a few weeks ago. And, I feel better than I have in months. But, although I have not lost a tremendous amount of weight (I feel slimmer due to the water weight, definitely), probably because I really don’t have a lot to lose to get to my ideal weight, I no longer feel like a slave to my emotional food demons. Or to the gym. Yeah, now I have to worry about carbs a bit – but the food I am eating is real, solid, satisfying food. I am no longer hungry – physically or emotionally. And, the more I read about Taubes and his research (and related research by others), the more confident I am that I am doing what is good for my health, too.
My point is that if someone who was as crazy and obsessed about the low fat/high carb diet dogma as I was can change their ways, then ANYBODY can do it. Please share my story on your site as you see fit and feel free to respond! As an avid writer and recent low carb convert, I think your forum is phenomenal.
This is the kind of transformational story you WON’T be hearing about in the mainstream press. But this woman is merely one example of how Good Calories, Bad Calories is changing the way people think about what a healthy diet really is. If the past three decades has taught us anything, then it should be that fat-phobia is indeed foolish. Fat is your best friend and it is the excessive amount of refined and even those highly-touted whole grain carbohydrates that you should be leery of. That’s the clear-cut message that Gary Taubes delivers throughout his book.
I’ve been keeping you up-to-date on all the latest news regarding Gary Taubes’ Good Calories, Bad Calories book and you can access those previous posts by clicking here. There’s still so much happening with the book that it’s time to give you yet another update about what’s going on.
Click here to get the scoop on all the very latest news about Gary Taubes and his runaway bestseller Good Calories, Bad Calories.
