Good Calories, Bad Calories Worth Biting Into

Professionally, I specialize in diet, nutrition, food, and health journalism. In addition, I'm completing my M.S. in nutrition. Thus, from a professional viewpoint, I was intrigued by the premise of Taubes' book: that the weight problems for so many of us stem from an excess of carbohydrates rather than dietary fat.

Personally, I have waged my own battle of the bulge since age 6, when a pediatrician put me on a diet. My mother tried to keep me on that restricted food plan all during elementary school and much of high school.

Toast with diet jam (no butter), cereal and non-fat milk for breakfast; plain bread with turkey or ham (no mayonnaise) for lunch, dry crackers (no peanut butter) for my after-school snack, and plain rice or a potato without butter, plus boring carrots or peas and a tiny serving of dry chicken or fish typically constituted my public meals.

The problem: all those supposedly weight-loss-inducing, fat-free meals seemed to fuel my hunger, rather than satisfy it. In private, constantly hungry, I gobbled candy bars, cookies, and even ice cream in my room. You'd be amazed what a food-craving youngster can hide in her knapsack!

"I have to go study," I would announce as I came through the door, having spent my allowance money at the corner grocery. And up to my bedroom I would go, to cram both classes and carbs into my body and mind.

It wasn't until UCLA, when my college roommate persuaded me to try the controversial all-protein Atkins diet with her, that I successfully lost weight. I happily filled up on bacon and eggs for breakfast, snacked on a hamburger patty (minus the bun) mid-morning, and ate all the chicken I wanted for lunch. We indulged in lamb chops or even steak for dinner, eating as much as we wanted. You've heard of the Freshman 15, which so many students gain from dorm food?
We lost that amount, and more. The problem, of course, is that we were college students, easily swayed by persuasive friends to enjoy "just a bite" of their pizza...or birthday cake...or doughnuts.

As every dieter knows, there's a roller coaster when it comes to weight gain and loss. The scale goes up...the diet begins...the scale goes down..you go off the diet "just this once"...and the scale goes up.

Intermittently, I would try exercising more and "just eating less," as the student health care doctor suggested when I consulted him about how to lose weight.
But as Taubes notes, it's not that simple. In his book, he contends -- and cites medical research to back up his claims -- that diets based on the standard less fat, more carbs, more exercise principles rarely work. Oh, and forget those endless articles and best-sellers promising that you can "eat whatever you want, just stay within your calorie allotment for the day."

Taubes contests that claim, showing evidence that the KIND of calories are just as important -- if not more important -- that your calorie total on a daily basis.
For those of us who never succeeded in losing weight on a low-fat, high carb diet, this well-written, thoroughly researched book validates our feeling that the standard food pyramid isn't necessarily the answer to our weight-waging wars.

As a scientific journalist, Taubes doesn't claim to offer the ultimate diet solution. What he does provide definitely qualifies, though, as healthy food for thought.
And now, if you'll excuse me: I have a chicken to bake.