"weight control" news and stories

When science journalist Gary Taubes wrote an article for The New York Times magazine in 2002 arguing that (and I'm summarizing a lot here) that it's the excessive consumption of calories from refined carbs and starches that causes weight problems and not the excessive consumption of calories consumed from fat, he was attacked by everyone. Now Taubes has a new book out that expands on the topic, Good Calories, Bad Calories. And he's still being attacked.

I haven't picked up the book yet, but it seems like an interesting read. Unlike other diet and health books that talk about their diets in rather basic terms, this is a thick tome that really goes in-depth about the body, weight, and health, quoting various studies that have been conducted over the years. I think one of his theories even questions how much exercise a human needs.

Has anyone read it yet?

It's the eternal battle amongst dieters - low carb/no carb? lowfat/reduced fat? Low cal? There is a strong argument for every one.

According to the early findings of research that has been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that compared people on lowfat diets versus people who follow a Mediterranean diet -- not "The" Mediterranean Diet, but "A" Mediterranean diet, the general term for a diet that includes large amounts of fat in the form of olive oil and tree nuts like almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts.

Though the complete study is not yet through its entire four years, participants so far who have been following Mediterranean lifestyles have experienced increases in HDL, decreases in LDL, and decreases in inflammation.

This is, of course, not new information, but encouraging for those of us who don't seem to find that lowfat diets work for our body types. Healthy or not healthy, it sure works for me, since Mediterreanan is in my top five cuisines!

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