An urgent appeal

Taubes often speaks to clinicians, nurse practitioners and obesity researchers about his findings. Earlier this spring, Taubes presented to the National Institutes of Health's Nutrition Coordinating Committee, trying to convince the group that his hypothesis must be taken seriously.

“We have this obesity epidemic and the diabetes epidemic, and they are predicted to overwhelm the health care system,” he says. He notes that obesity increases the risk of getting diabetes, coronary heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease and other chronic diseases of civilization.

“Whatever is making us fat is also making us sick,” he says.

And Taubes' urgent appeal to those leading the nutrition establishment is to question their own beliefs.

“Obviously,” he says, “what they have been telling us hasn't worked.”

What's next?

Besides lecturing, Taubes is working on an easier-to-read book, which he refers to jokingly as “Good Calories, Bad Calories Lite.” The actual working title is “Why We Get Fat.”

“I want it to be something that everyone can read so they really understand how the science works,” he says.

He intends to explain why some people gain weight and their friends don't, and why some gain weight as they age or when they get pregnant or when they drink beer.

“I want to directly challenge the belief that it's all about this meaningless concept of overeating,” he says.

Diana Barto is a freelance writer based in Waconia, MN, and a former BEEF senior associate editor.