Furthermore, given a choice between the nutrition-experts and the biochemists, I’ll take the latter, thanks.

Not true. Free of the longtime Buddhist influence on the Japanese “mainland” (Honshu etc.), the Okinawan islands have a diet much like that of the Phillipines, i.e. plenty of animal protein in the form of pig and goat (and they famously use EVERY part of the animal as well). That said, they also consume plenty of seafood and claim that the bitter melon is an important part of longevity.

So given that Okinawans eat more animal meat and bitter melon than the average Japanese, maybe that’s what Americans should be eating too.

Oh wait. The second longest average lifespans (by nationality) belong to the Swiss, who famously eat a lot of cheese and chocolate. Or we can look at isolated communities in the Caucasus and Bulgaria, where the centenarians swear by the benefits of fresh yogurt.

It’s all so confusing!! Well, one thing we know for sure — a diet high in saturated fat (percentage-wise) is not necessarily associated with early vascular issues, unless of course you refer to the chemically-laced, factory-farm-derived products that we find in the average supermarket here in the US.

Reading these differing comments has made the book a must-read for me now, so thanks one and all for that!

I didn’t see the metabolic advantage of very low-carb diets mentioned in relation to the amount of calories consumed across the 3 groups: low carb/low calorie, low fat/Mediterranean. Very low carb forces the body to burn fat for fuel. If I’m not mistaken, in order to burn fat while the intake of carbs is high, you would have to first deplete the 13-hour glycogen store in the liver before your body would begin burning fat. With low carb, the body is primarily burning fat for fuel all the time — even when sleeping. The limited amount of carbs fuels certain portions of the brain, but the rest of the body does quite well making the switch from burning carbs to burning fat, both dietary and stored in fat cells. Atkins isn’t a high protein diet. It’s a high fat diet.

I tried low-fat and low-carb and was hungry to the point that I purposely went to bed hungry because it was easier to tolerate while asleep. I still failed to lose any weight.

After reading Taubes book (and noticing the finger-prints of the carbohydrate lobby on defunding key research) I started a low-carb diet and lost and now maintain a healthy weight (with ease). I don’t feel chronically hungry, fatigued and grouchy like I did on a low-cal diet. A low-carb diet has much more vegetables in it than the typical US diet.

Early man did not eat high glycemic food on a regular basis – he ate lots of meat as the size and type of his bones show.

If you haven’t actually read Taube’s book, please refrain from making statements about what is in the book as many of the above posts are dis-informative and misleading.

Nope. That’s the establishment talking, not Taubes.

and you too can be fit and healthy.

amazing.