I’ve been hearing about Good Calories, Bad Calories for a while now. Several people have recommended it to me as a great source of nutrition wisdom. I was a bit pessimistic before reading it, since my understanding of nutrition has always been that most people (even the experts) aren’t really sure what’s going on.
After picking up a copy, I was surprised to find that it was mostly a chronicle of nutrition research over the past century and a half. I was definitely expecting more of a diet book. The author has his ideas about the healthiest way to eat, but a lot of the book is actually about all the different people who’ve researched aspects of nutrition throughout history.
I enjoyed reading the book, and I think that I have a much better sense of the details of nutrition now. I’m planning to write a blog post about a few of the major themes I see running through the book to cement my thinking on it.
These include:
1. The fact that large organizations (the AHA and the US gov’t) take half-formed scientific research as gospel. The result of that, according to GCBC, have been making people sick for a century.
2. Everything bad is good for you
3. Metabolic Syndrome is a thing
4. Aging and Cancer
5. Obesity