Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It

Author: Gary Taubes

This book has been in the making for over ten years, starting with a series of research articles I wrote for Science magazine, and then for the New York Times magazine, about the poor state of nutrition research and chronic diseases. It is an extension of five years of additional research that resulted in my previous book. The arguments in this book have been supported by lectures given at medical schools, universities, and various research institutions in the United States and Canada. What I tried to illustrate in the book is that nutrition and obesity research faded into obscurity after World War II, with the disappearance of the European community of scientists and doctors who had done pioneering work in these two fields. Since then, research has resisted all attempts to correct it. As a result, researchers involved in this research have not only wasted decades of time, effort, and money, but they have also caused untold harm along the way; their beliefs remained immune to the growing evidence that refuted them, while public health experts embraced them and translated them into completely erroneous advice about what we should eat, and more importantly, what we should not eat, if we want to maintain a healthy weight and live a long, healthy life.