(2002-07-09) c

Cory Doctorow on on the Gary Taubes article about the diet aspects of Physical Fitness.

Cory: I'm not a dietician, but after reading this article, I thought back to all the people I know who've been successful at losing weight in the past five or six years, and all the people I know who haven't been. Universally, the crazy guys who ordered triple-cheeseburgers but eschewed the buns are the ones who can see their toes today, while the fat-free miseries that the rest of us endured have come to nowt but extra rolls.

Taubes: The perversity of this alternative hypothesis is that it identifies the cause of obesity as precisely those refined carbohydrates at the base of the famous Food Guide Pyramid -- the pasta, rice and bread -- that we are told should be the staple of our healthy low-fat diet, and then on the sugar or corn syrup in the soft drinks, fruit juices and sports drinks that we have taken to consuming in quantity if for no other reason than that they are fat free and so appear intrinsically healthy.