Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Don’t Eat This
I’ve generally been quite critical of the calorie model of health in my writing. Science has shown time and again that it is far too simplistic a model — calories in equal to calories out does not always ensure that no weight is gained, and consuming fewer calories than are burned does not guarantee weight loss. Nevermind that weight gain and loss is a rather poor measure of overall health (remember that starvation, parasite infection and hundreds of other diseases lead to weight loss, too).
For an in-depth look at this, here’s a fascinating video of Gary Taubes, scientific researcher and author of Good Calories, Bad Calories (a title he admits is inappropriate but that he adopted it, bowing to pressures from American marketing people; the book is called The Diet Delusion in the UK). In the video, Taubes explains the failings of the calorie model, and more specifically, how wrong our conception is that obesity is caused by eating too much. It’s a long video (one hour), but it is quite illuminating and well worth watching.
Continue reading Why Calorie Counting Won’t Help You Lose Weight