The Obesity Epidemic with Gary Taubes

Gary Taubes makes a second appearance on the Friday edition of the Angriest Trainer podcast with Vinnie Tortorich. PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS GARY TAUBES & HIS MUST-READS Gary is a reporter/journalist (NY Times) and a controversial guy, has done one of the best interviews in this podcast's history Writing another book currently -- so is Vinnie!  Went to Harvard, Stanford, Columbia  Ivy League education definitely affected him  VINNIE'S READING Reads incredibly slowly but comprehends way more than the average person Scientific brain -- he doesn't assume, he knows  Ended up allowing him to not pay attention in class, just read the books NUTRITION WRITING He was doing nutritional pieces for science sections  He looked at evidence and saw whether or not it really was supported Gary wrote a controversial article calling out the nutrition world for saying low fat was bad  Initially was researching what caused the obesity epidemic? Two hypotheses: high fructose corn syrup, shift to low fat diets LOW FAT DIETS ended up being the issue, clear in his research Even in the 60's, people weren't fat  In the early 1900s, only ~1/20 people were obese  Only 2 Obese kids in Gary's middle school 60's : baked potato was fattening ; 80's: baked potato was a heart healthy food  At first, people didn't realize that high fructose corn syrup was sugar  When heart health came into question, fat became (incorrectly) bad, and carbs/sugar became (incorrectly) passable  WHY WE GET FAT The general idea is calorie in / calorie out and thermodynamics Just like you can't think of wealth/poverty in terms of money intake vs money spent, you can't think of calories that way either  We secrete insulin in response to our carbohydrate intake