Gary Taubes Continues His Dietary Truth Crusade On ExtraTV
Posted Sep 11 2008 8:27pm
Gary Taubes spreads carbohydrate-restriction message on ExtraTV
In an extended version of "Gary Taubes Week" here at the "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" blog, I have a couple of video segments to share with you featuring the embattled Good Calories, Bad Calories author defending livin' la vida low-carb as a means for reducing weight and health risks.
First, he appeared on ExtraTV program on Monday discussing his new book and what they call the "explosive" message contained therein by such a "controversial" author. Apparently, the producers at the show think that a low-carb diet promoted by anyone other than that quack fad diet guru Dr. Atkins merits that kind of hyperbolic expression to describe it.
What REALLY raised their ire? It was this statement.
"Seventy-percent of cancers are caused by diet," Taubes said.
This allegedly is "raising eyebrows" among the so-called health "experts." But I don't know why they got all in a tizzy over this statement because we JUST had some pretty incredible news out of Germany and the Wurzburg Cancer Trial which found a low-carb diet is a highly effective way to manage and even cure cancers of all kinds, especially when every other treatment option has failed. Gary Taubes is simply stating what science is already showing us.
The ExtraTV feature also highlights his support for dietary fat of all kinds in the fight against obesity while simultaneously shunning the carbohydrates, which he says are "the likely causes of cancer, Alzheimer's disease and the other chronic diseases of civilization."
Again, the evidence is there for these conditions as well regarding the blood sugar connection to Alzheimer's disease (be sure to read my interview with noted neurologist Dr. Larry McCleary for even more on this) as well as many other diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome, among many others.
Yes, it took five years and over 600 interviews to make Good Calories, Bad Calories come to fruition, but it is here now and all the evidence is there in black and white for anyone to read.
Get a load of all the comments posted beneath the ExtraTV article and you'll see many of them deriding Taubes for supporting such an "extreme" diet. Of course, yours truly posted a video response in SUPPORT for him and I encourage you to do the same.
Second, I was browsing around YouTube and found a rather interesting discussion between Gary Taubes, Dr. Dean Ornish, and Dr. Barbara Howard (from the American Heart Association) and moderated by Dr. Mehmet Oz (guest hosting for Charlie Rose) surrounding Taubes'original article that set off the firestorm of controversy. It's a rather lengthy video (about 50 minutes long), but chock full of some truly amazing points by Taubes.
It reminded me of those Sunday morning news shows where you have all these liberal guests and the one token conservative guest left to defend his position against the firebreathing opposition. But I'll give Taubes credit, he came off looking very well-versed and confident in his position in support of low-carb living against the "cut your fats if you wanna save your health" Ornish position and the "oh, just eat in moderation and exercise" Howard position. You can almost see Taubes rolling his eyes at some of the jibberish these two low-carb establishment apologists were spouting.
Here's the video (FYI: the sound and audio are a little off):
About halfway through, you can see Dr. Ornish get visibly upset with Taubes which was great to see. And Ornish didn't really say anything different than what he told me about a year ago in my interview with him. Plus, if you look carefully, you'll notice that Dr. Ornish is the ONLY member of the panel with a computer screen in front of him. Taubes, Howard, and Oz all spoke without the use of notes or prompts, but Ornish did not. Interesting.
We knew Gary Taubes was going to be sacrificed to the lambs when he released his book and they're trying their best to discredit him. But the evidence is the truth and truth cannot be refuted no matter how hard you try. Keep on supporting Good Calories, Bad Calories which has broken into the Top 50 overall at Amazon this week and will continue to climb the bestseller charts as more and more people hear about this remarkable book.
Incidentally, over the weekend I sent out an invitation to quite a few people in the world of diet, health, and nutrition from all vantage points requesting a comment or blurb reaction to the new Taubes book. Interesting, most responded that they had not read the book or even heard about it. Even Dr. Ornish responded with the following:
"Thanks, I'll take a look. What are your impressions of the new book?"
I wrote him back and said I would reserve my comments until I heard from him and that I wanted his honest feedback. Based on his interactions with Taubes on the Charlie Rose program, I can only imagine. It is amazing he has YET to respond, though. But I'll let you know if he does and publish his comments here.
One other notable response I received was from Dr. Christopher Gardner, author of the infamous JAMA study in March this year that found the Atkins diet outperformed all other diets for weight loss and health improvements. As you can read in the follow-up response I received from Dr. Gardner, he's not exactly a low-carb supporter and that was reflected in this e-mail I received back from him for a comment on the Taubes book:
"I haven't read it yet, although I was sent a free copy. After seeing his recent article in the New York Times magazine I'm not very interested in reading his book. I'm not impressed. But if I do get to it I'll keep your invitation in mind."
Well, alrighty then! Although Ornish and Gardner aren't too thrilled with Good Calories, Bad Calories, there are MANY others in the field of health and nutrition who ARE and I'll be bringing you those reactions in the coming days and weeks. Feel free to share your thoughts about the book in the comments section below.
10-2-07 UPDATE: There was an EXCELLENT article about Taubes and his new book in Reuters today that you should really check out. Once again, Gary Taubes holds his own and shares why he wrote this book. Here's an excerpt:
"Science doesn't work without extreme skepticism and without challenges to the conventional wisdom. [Good Calories, Bad Calories is] a plea to take this hypothesis seriously, because it has the advantage of explaining the observations, which the current dogma cannot do. I thought if one in 10 [doctors, researchers and public health officials read the book], then that 10 percent is likely to start a debate that is likely to spread from there."
Here's hoping that conversation begins in earnest sooner rather than later!
Gary Taubes spreads carbohydrate-restriction message on ExtraTV
In an extended version of "Gary Taubes Week" here at the "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" blog, I have a couple of video segments to share with you featuring the embattled Good Calories, Bad Calories author defending livin' la vida low-carb as a means for reducing weight and health risks.
First, he appeared on ExtraTV program on Monday discussing his new book and what they call the "explosive" message contained therein by such a "controversial" author. Apparently, the producers at the show think that a low-carb diet promoted by anyone other than that quack fad diet guru Dr. Atkins merits that kind of hyperbolic expression to describe it.
What REALLY raised their ire? It was this statement.
"Seventy-percent of cancers are caused by diet," Taubes said.
This allegedly is "raising eyebrows" among the so-called health "experts." But I don't know why they got all in a tizzy over this statement because we JUST had some pretty incredible news out of Germany and the Wurzburg Cancer Trial which found a low-carb diet is a highly effective way to manage and even cure cancers of all kinds, especially when every other treatment option has failed. Gary Taubes is simply stating what science is already showing us.
The ExtraTV feature also highlights his support for dietary fat of all kinds in the fight against obesity while simultaneously shunning the carbohydrates, which he says are "the likely causes of cancer, Alzheimer's disease and the other chronic diseases of civilization."
Again, the evidence is there for these conditions as well regarding the blood sugar connection to Alzheimer's disease (be sure to read my interview with noted neurologist Dr. Larry McCleary for even more on this) as well as many other diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome, among many others.
Yes, it took five years and over 600 interviews to make Good Calories, Bad Calories come to fruition, but it is here now and all the evidence is there in black and white for anyone to read.
Get a load of all the comments posted beneath the ExtraTV article and you'll see many of them deriding Taubes for supporting such an "extreme" diet. Of course, yours truly posted a video response in SUPPORT for him and I encourage you to do the same.
Second, I was browsing around YouTube and found a rather interesting discussion between Gary Taubes, Dr. Dean Ornish, and Dr. Barbara Howard (from the American Heart Association) and moderated by Dr. Mehmet Oz (guest hosting for Charlie Rose) surrounding Taubes'original article that set off the firestorm of controversy. It's a rather lengthy video (about 50 minutes long), but chock full of some truly amazing points by Taubes.
It reminded me of those Sunday morning news shows where you have all these liberal guests and the one token conservative guest left to defend his position against the firebreathing opposition. But I'll give Taubes credit, he came off looking very well-versed and confident in his position in support of low-carb living against the "cut your fats if you wanna save your health" Ornish position and the "oh, just eat in moderation and exercise" Howard position. You can almost see Taubes rolling his eyes at some of the jibberish these two low-carb establishment apologists were spouting.
Here's the video (FYI: the sound and audio are a little off):
About halfway through, you can see Dr. Ornish get visibly upset with Taubes which was great to see. And Ornish didn't really say anything different than what he told me about a year ago in my interview with him. Plus, if you look carefully, you'll notice that Dr. Ornish is the ONLY member of the panel with a computer screen in front of him. Taubes, Howard, and Oz all spoke without the use of notes or prompts, but Ornish did not. Interesting.
We knew Gary Taubes was going to be sacrificed to the lambs when he released his book and they're trying their best to discredit him. But the evidence is the truth and truth cannot be refuted no matter how hard you try. Keep on supporting Good Calories, Bad Calories which has broken into the Top 50 overall at Amazon this week and will continue to climb the bestseller charts as more and more people hear about this remarkable book.
Incidentally, over the weekend I sent out an invitation to quite a few people in the world of diet, health, and nutrition from all vantage points requesting a comment or blurb reaction to the new Taubes book. Interesting, most responded that they had not read the book or even heard about it. Even Dr. Ornish responded with the following:
"Thanks, I'll take a look. What are your impressions of the new book?"
I wrote him back and said I would reserve my comments until I heard from him and that I wanted his honest feedback. Based on his interactions with Taubes on the Charlie Rose program, I can only imagine. It is amazing he has YET to respond, though. But I'll let you know if he does and publish his comments here.
One other notable response I received was from Dr. Christopher Gardner, author of the infamous JAMA study in March this year that found the Atkins diet outperformed all other diets for weight loss and health improvements. As you can read in the follow-up response I received from Dr. Gardner, he's not exactly a low-carb supporter and that was reflected in this e-mail I received back from him for a comment on the Taubes book:
"I haven't read it yet, although I was sent a free copy. After seeing his recent article in the New York Times magazine I'm not very interested in reading his book. I'm not impressed. But if I do get to it I'll keep your invitation in mind."
Well, alrighty then! Although Ornish and Gardner aren't too thrilled with Good Calories, Bad Calories, there are MANY others in the field of health and nutrition who ARE and I'll be bringing you those reactions in the coming days and weeks. Feel free to share your thoughts about the book in the comments section below.
10-2-07 UPDATE: There was an EXCELLENT article about Taubes and his new book in Reuters today that you should really check out. Once again, Gary Taubes holds his own and shares why he wrote this book. Here's an excerpt:
"Science doesn't work without extreme skepticism and without challenges to the conventional wisdom. [Good Calories, Bad Calories is] a plea to take this hypothesis seriously, because it has the advantage of explaining the observations, which the current dogma cannot do. I thought if one in 10 [doctors, researchers and public health officials read the book], then that 10 percent is likely to start a debate that is likely to spread from there."
Here's hoping that conversation begins in earnest sooner rather than later!
Labels: Barbara Howard, book, Charlie Rose, Dean Ornish, disease, ExtraTV, fat, Gary Taubes, Good Calories Bad Calories, health, low-carb, obesity, saturated fat, YouTube