Part 13 - Gary Taubes on Nutrition Science; How Much We Know, How Little We Know

Today we’re hearing from Gary Taubes who I got a chance to interview for Food Lies a couple months ago when he was in LA. Gary is an investigative science and health journalist who for the past 20 years has been questioning the bad science that’s been done along with the mainstream nutritional wisdom. He’s written some groundbreaking articles in the New York Times and has written multiple best selling books. He’s won various awards for his journalism and is a real authority on nutrition science  so it was a treat to hear his musings on all of this. He generously lent me 2 hours of his time so we covered a lot - there’s a ton of links in the show notes. We get into some interesting details at the end so stick around.

This actually will be the last episode of the season. I already have an almost fully booked next season of episodes and have begun interviewing. There will be a a little break because these episodes are a lot of work even if it doesn’t seem like it. I’ll also be busy for a couple weeks on a film tour across the US next week followed by some other filming and editing.

The big news is we are starting a new crowdfunding campaign as of today, this time on Indiegogo. Too many people missed out on pre-ordering the film and have been reaching out to me. You also can’t make a documentary on the $30k we did on Indiegogo. So please support us by searching for Food Lies on Kickstarter.com or clicking through from the show notes. Now here’s Gary.

Pre-order the film on Indiegogo http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post

 

 

Show Notes

 

• Nutrition science is almost impossible to do well and people become almost religious about their pet theories
• Good Calories, Bad Calories https://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Science/dp/1400033462/
• Historical context of good science and then nutrition science
• Vilhjalmur Stefansson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhjalmur_Stefansson
• Dr. Shawn Baker and thousands of carnivores http://MeatHeals.com
• My call with Professor Daniel Lieberman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lieberman
• Fiber
• Thomas L. (Peter) Cleave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_L._Cleave
• Sir Richard Doll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Doll
• Burkitt’s Lymphoma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkitt%27s_lymphoma
• Interviewing doctors who prescribe low carb diets
• Most people understand what a healthy diet is supposed to be and that they should exercise
• Calories in vs. calories out analogy
• Eat more, move less
• Why We Get Fat: And What to do About It https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259/
• Why do obese people’s body hang onto fat while skinny people’s bodies don’t. This is the question that needs to be asked
• Hormones
• Psychologists and psychiatrists used to be the ones looking at obesity - why do they eat so much?
• The study of obesity was somehow divorced from the basic science of endocrinology
• Group think
• What kind of studies can we make to prove this?
• But sugar calories are different
• Cold fusion fiasco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion
• Bad Science book https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Science-Short-Weird-Fusion/dp/0394584562
• Francis Bacon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon
• “You start accumulating evidence to prove you were right all along”
• Philosophising on vegan diets and longevity
• Can we ever know the answers?
• How fat works on a cellular level
• How do very low fat diets even work?
• Are vegans more starch tolerant?
• Why is sugar uniquely fattening and not just another calorie
• The Case Against Sugar https://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-Sugar-Gary-Taubes/dp/0307701646
• Salt and what we got wrong http://science.sciencemag.org/content/281/5379/898
• http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-know-the-truth-about-salt.html?
• More Daniel Lieberman bogus ideas
• Earliest humans probably ate high fat large animals
• Are we making progress? Swiss Re conference http://institute.swissre.com/events/food_for_thought_bmj.html
• This giant re-insurance company has a lot to gain financially if they figure out what the right diet is to prevent or cure diabetes is
• Smart people and good scientists ask questions and don’t speak in absolutes
• A theory is supposed to get stronger with time, not weaker. So why is there a new headline every week, showing another exception?
• Fat is bad paradigm gets weaker and weaker
• Send topics and questions for the “Meeting of the minds” with Gary Taubes, Prof. Tim Noakes, Nina Teicholz, and Dom D’Agostino to me @FoodLiesOrg on Twitter and @food.lies on Instagram

Pre-order the film on Indiegogo http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post

Film site: http://FoodLies.org

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