Taubes, Gary. Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease. Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.

This is an unsettling book. It digs into how diet—specifically the kinds of food we’re told to eat—affects our bodies and, ultimately, our society. Though I’m a competitive swimmer at school, and have the sort of constitution that inclines me more to lose than to gain weight, I have noticed that some of the other boys in my class are starting to fill out—one of them a good illustration of how sixteen can turn to thirty-five in just six months of beer and Domino Pizza.

Taubes says in his first chapter:

In this book my aim is to look critically at a straightforward question to which most of us believe we know the answer: What constitutes a healthy diet? What should we eat if we want to live a long and a healthy life? To address this question, we’ll examine the evidence supporting both the prevailing wisdom and this alternative hypothesis, and we’ll confront the strong possibility that much of what we’ve come to believe is wrong.

What we think we know about diet is mostly wrong. Fat isn’t the enemy. Sugar, starches, and the flood of carbohydrates we’ve been told are “heart-healthy” are the real culprits behind the rise in obesity and diseases like diabetes. He tracks how science, politics, and big business combined to create dietary guidelines that have more to do with profits than health. The beer my classmates love? Packed with sugar and empty calories, it’s a perfect example of how modern consumption habits lead us astray.

The book shows how early experiments by scientists like Ancel Keys, which linked saturated fat to heart disease, were flawed but became the foundation for decades of dietary advice. Taubes explains how government guidelines—like the infamous Food Pyramid—recommended high-carbohydrate diets not because they were proven to be healthy but because they aligned with the interests of agricultural lobbies. Bread, pasta, and beer might be easy on the wallet, but as Taubes points out, they’re also directly linked to the kind of sluggishness and fat gain that’s becoming uncomfortably common.

One of the book’s central ideas is the role of insulin in fat storage. High-carb diets lead to repeated spikes in insulin, trapping calories as fat and leaving the body feeling hungry, even when it doesn’t need more energy. Taubes challenges the conventional “calories-in, calories-out” narrative, arguing that obesity is more about what you eat than how much. Looking at some of my beer-drinking, chip-munching classmates, it’s easy to believe him. Even when they try to cut calories, they rarely address the sugar-loaded drinks and carb-heavy foods that make up most of their diets.

As said, I’m a swimmer. I take being light and fit for granted. But Taubes has made me rethink what “healthy” means. Breakfast cereal isn’t as good for me as I thought. Energy bars are certainly bad for me. Leave out the toast and beans, a full-English is much better than all the stuff I’ve been taught is good for me. His analysis of the so-called “diseases of civilisation”—obesity, diabetes, cancer, and even dementia—suggests that their alarming increase can be traced to our love of sugar and refined carbs. These ingredients, marketed so aggressively by big business and practically endorsed by governments, are as much about convenience as they are about addiction.

For libertarian readers, Taubes’ book is a persuasive reminder of why we should question public institutions. Governments, often influenced by corporate interests, have misled people about what to eat. The push for low-fat diets wasn’t based on solid science but rather on shaky correlations and a desire to simplify public health messaging. That so many people now struggle with their weight—that they so often feel hopeless and without agency—is a direct result of this mismanagement.

What stands out most in Good Calories, Bad Calories is how Taubes cuts through the noise and challenges us to rethink everything. His work highlights the dangers of sugar and carbs, not just for our waistlines but for our overall health. For anyone who cares about performance in the water, on the track, or just day-to-day life, this book offers a compelling reason to avoid the beer and pizza trap and to question everything we’re told about diet and health.

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