“What If It’s All Been a Big, Fat Lie,” by Gary Taubes
In the first paragraph of the essay, Taubes inserts the statement “Any theory that tries to account for obesity in America, has to account for that,” referring to the sharp rise in obesity in the 1980’s and setting up his thesis that carbohydrates, not fats cause obesity. What does this mean? Taubes makes it seem plausible that fat causes obesity and offers reasonable doubt that carbohydrates may be the culprit, instead.
William Dietz who runs the division of nutrition and physical activity at the Center of disease control said “As far as exercise and physical activity go, there are no reliable data before the mid-80's.” In 1990’s study by Center of Disease Control shows "exercise activity remains unchanged from 70’s to 80’s.” Why was the data not reliable? People in the 70’s and 80’s were not exposed to fast food and junk food which lead them to eat healthy. We watch television and most of the time we see fast food commercial. Since we see these fast food commercials, we crave for it and we drive ourselves to the drive thru and buys are self meals. However, we tend to eat so much unhealthy food, most us tend not work out which leads us to have health problems.
What foods have good or bad cholesterol in them? Foods high in good fats include vegetable oils (such as olive, canola, sunflower, soy, and corn), nuts, seeds, and fish. Foods high in bad fats include red meat, butter, cheese, and ice cream, as well as processed foods made with trans fat from partially hydrogenated oil. As we can see most fat may be bad for us, but there are fats that are good for us and have redeeming qualities. “Grain products and concentrated sugars were essentially absent human nutrition until the invention of agriculture.” David Ludwig said. Ludwig also stated that in lectures people do not talk about this being a cause in obesity. In paragraph seven in the essay, Ancel Keys a Minnesota physician noted that fats “have good staying power.” We can say that Italians love to eat pasta; however, the Italians are the heaviest population that Keys had studied. According to Keys, there were no evidence of nutritional deficiency, but the working-class women were fat. At this point we do not know if fats are causing obesity or carbohydrates.
The former director of Nutrition Division of the United Nations said “By the 1970’s you can find articles in the journals high rates of obesity in Africa and the Caribbean where diets only consist of carbohydrates.” Does that mean carbohydrates are bad for us? Since we can see what carbohydrates can do to you, do we still believe that fats are still bad. The question we ask our self what are the difference in good and bad cholesterol? Cholesterol can't dissolve in the blood. It has to be transported to and from the cells by carriers called lipoproteins. Low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, is known as "bad" cholesterol. High-density lipoprotein, or HDL, is known as "good" cholesterol. In Taubes essay he states that saturated fats are good for you. In other words even though it is bad cholesterol, it also elevate your good cholesterol at the same time. Harvard School of Public explained to Taubes that you will gain little to no health benefit by giving up milk, butter, and cheese and eating bagels instead.
In conclusion, what Taubes is really trying to say carbohydrates is more likely to make us obese then fats. Tubes mentioned in thirteen paragraph, “I have read papers that suggesting that twenty years of low-fat diets recommendations have not managed to lower the incidence of heart diease and may led instead to steep increase in obesity and type two diabetes.” This leads back to paragraph one what he said “theory that tries to account for obesity in America, has to account for that.”