The most popular diet these days is the Keto diet.
In no small way, the thinking behind the debacle comes from Gary Taubes's hypotheses about insulin, fat and carbohydrates. Taubes is trained in Physics, and tells a good yarn. He's parlayed that talent into a good writing career, and has affected a LOT of people's opinions.
However he never grasped Biochem.
Let me not be hypocritical, for I too skipped learning piles of Biochem in Med School. I did enough to comfortably pass finals. After that, it took me 25 years before I went back, to fill in gaps. But unlike Taubes, I never pretended to have any breakthrough ideas while actually being ignorant. Of course "ignorant" here means knowing more than he did, anyhow.
If you feel that this keto approach is valid, and that the science behind it is sound, you need to know about NuSI.
It was a 40 million dollar company set up by Taubes, but is now both broke and defunct.
Lead Researcher Kevin Hall basically conceeded that the studies run by NuSI disproved Taubesian concepts.
So Taubes comes up with it, gets money, starts a company, runs studies, and HIS own effort blows up the idea.
But people are STILL doing keto. Because nobody reads.
Pretty much any calorie restricted diet works about the same as all others.
Takeaway:
Carbs are almost never converted to fats in our bodies. There is a 30% energy surtax on thst.
You need a BIG sustained surplus. > 30% surplus.
Exception is fructose. Starches in whole foods seems safe. Like oats, potatoes, legumes etc.
Fats we eat go straight to fat stores once we hit past total calorie
surplus. Adding MCT oil to salad and calling it Keto is just dumb. You want LESS calories, not more.
Combined fat/carb intake past the maintainence calories results in carbs being burned, and the fat stored. As fat, duh.
Intracellular lipids seem to block insulin and cause diabetes.
In no small way, the thinking behind the debacle comes from Gary Taubes's hypotheses about insulin, fat and carbohydrates. Taubes is trained in Physics, and tells a good yarn. He's parlayed that talent into a good writing career, and has affected a LOT of people's opinions.
However he never grasped Biochem.
Let me not be hypocritical, for I too skipped learning piles of Biochem in Med School. I did enough to comfortably pass finals. After that, it took me 25 years before I went back, to fill in gaps. But unlike Taubes, I never pretended to have any breakthrough ideas while actually being ignorant. Of course "ignorant" here means knowing more than he did, anyhow.
If you feel that this keto approach is valid, and that the science behind it is sound, you need to know about NuSI.
It was a 40 million dollar company set up by Taubes, but is now both broke and defunct.
Lead Researcher Kevin Hall basically conceeded that the studies run by NuSI disproved Taubesian concepts.
So Taubes comes up with it, gets money, starts a company, runs studies, and HIS own effort blows up the idea.
But people are STILL doing keto. Because nobody reads.
Pretty much any calorie restricted diet works about the same as all others.
Takeaway:
Carbs are almost never converted to fats in our bodies. There is a 30% energy surtax on thst.
You need a BIG sustained surplus. > 30% surplus.
Exception is fructose. Starches in whole foods seems safe. Like oats, potatoes, legumes etc.
Fats we eat go straight to fat stores once we hit past total calorie
surplus. Adding MCT oil to salad and calling it Keto is just dumb. You want LESS calories, not more.
Combined fat/carb intake past the maintainence calories results in carbs being burned, and the fat stored. As fat, duh.
Intracellular lipids seem to block insulin and cause diabetes.
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