What do you think?
Rate this book
Rethinking Diabetes: What Science Reveals About Diet, Insulin, and Successful Treatments
An eye-opening investigation into the history of diabetes research and treatment by the award-winning journalist and best-selling author of Why We Get Fat • "[Gary] Taubes’s meticulous, science-based work makes him the Bryan Stevenson of nutrition, an early voice in the wilderness for an unorthodox view that is increasingly becoming accepted."—Niel Barsky, The Guardian
Before the discovery of insulin, diabetes was treated almost exclusively through diet, from subsistence on meat, to reliance on fats, to repeated fasting and near-starvation regimens. After two centuries of conflicting medical advice, most authorities today believe that those with diabetes can have the same dietary freedom enjoyed by the rest of us, leaving the job of controlling their disease to insulin therapy and other blood-sugar-lowering medications. Rather than embark on “futile” efforts to restrict sugar or carbohydrate intake, people with diabetes can lead a normal life, complete with the occasional ice-cream cake, side of fries, or soda.
These guiding principles, however, have been accompanied by an explosive rise in diabetes over the last fifty years, particularly among underserved populations. And the health of those with diabetes is expected to continue to deteriorate inexorably over time, with ever-increasing financial, physical, and psychological burdens. In Rethinking Diabetes, Gary Taubes explores the history underpinning the treatment of diabetes, types 1 and 2, elucidating how decades-old research that is rife with misconceptions has continued to influence the guidance physicians offer—at the expense of their patients’ long-term well-being.
The result of Taubes’s work is a reimagining of diabetes care that argues for a recentering of diet—particularly, fewer carbohydrates and more fat—over a reliance on insulin. Taubes argues critically and passionately that doctors and medical researchers should question the established wisdom that may have enabled the current epidemic of diabetes and obesity, and renew their focus on clinical trials to resolve controversies that are now a century in the making.
Before the discovery of insulin, diabetes was treated almost exclusively through diet, from subsistence on meat, to reliance on fats, to repeated fasting and near-starvation regimens. After two centuries of conflicting medical advice, most authorities today believe that those with diabetes can have the same dietary freedom enjoyed by the rest of us, leaving the job of controlling their disease to insulin therapy and other blood-sugar-lowering medications. Rather than embark on “futile” efforts to restrict sugar or carbohydrate intake, people with diabetes can lead a normal life, complete with the occasional ice-cream cake, side of fries, or soda.
These guiding principles, however, have been accompanied by an explosive rise in diabetes over the last fifty years, particularly among underserved populations. And the health of those with diabetes is expected to continue to deteriorate inexorably over time, with ever-increasing financial, physical, and psychological burdens. In Rethinking Diabetes, Gary Taubes explores the history underpinning the treatment of diabetes, types 1 and 2, elucidating how decades-old research that is rife with misconceptions has continued to influence the guidance physicians offer—at the expense of their patients’ long-term well-being.
The result of Taubes’s work is a reimagining of diabetes care that argues for a recentering of diet—particularly, fewer carbohydrates and more fat—over a reliance on insulin. Taubes argues critically and passionately that doctors and medical researchers should question the established wisdom that may have enabled the current epidemic of diabetes and obesity, and renew their focus on clinical trials to resolve controversies that are now a century in the making.
498 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 2, 2024
302 people are currently reading
850 people want to read
About the author
Gary Taubes
25 books767 followersGary Taubes is an American science writer. He is the author of Nobel Dreams (1987), Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion (1993), and Good Calories, Bad Calories (2007), titled The Diet Delusion (2008) in the UK and Australia. His book Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It was released in December 2010. In December 2010 Taubes launched a blog at GaryTaubes.com to promote the book's release and to respond to critics. His main hypothesis is based on: Carbohydrates generate insulin, which causes the body to store fat.
Taubes studied applied physics at Harvard University (BS, 1977) and aerospace engineering at Stanford University (MS, 1978). After receiving a master's degree in journalism at Columbia University in 1981, Taubes joined Discover magazine as a staff reporter in 1982. Since then he has written numerous articles for Discover, Science and other magazines. Originally focusing on physics issues, his interests have more recently turned to medicine and nutrition.
Taubes's books have all dealt with scientific controversies. Nobel Dreams takes a critical look at the politics and experimental techniques behind the Nobel Prize-winning work of physicist Carlo Rubbia. Bad Science is a chronicle of the short-lived media frenzy surrounding the Pons-Fleischmann cold fusion experiments of 1989. [wikipedia]
Taubes studied applied physics at Harvard University (BS, 1977) and aerospace engineering at Stanford University (MS, 1978). After receiving a master's degree in journalism at Columbia University in 1981, Taubes joined Discover magazine as a staff reporter in 1982. Since then he has written numerous articles for Discover, Science and other magazines. Originally focusing on physics issues, his interests have more recently turned to medicine and nutrition.
Taubes's books have all dealt with scientific controversies. Nobel Dreams takes a critical look at the politics and experimental techniques behind the Nobel Prize-winning work of physicist Carlo Rubbia. Bad Science is a chronicle of the short-lived media frenzy surrounding the Pons-Fleischmann cold fusion experiments of 1989. [wikipedia]
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
February 4, 2024
Rethinking Diabetes, Gary Taubes, 2024, 495 pages, Dewey 616.462, ISBN 9780525520085
Only low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets show consistent benefits. pp. 16, 265. The introduction of fat is the most important art in diabetic cookery. p. 39. Our brains are 60% fat. p. 57. If you're going to eat a vegetable, put cheese sauce or oil or butter or cream on it.
The diet that best prevents heart disease in /anyone/ is that which lowers blood sugar and minimizes insulin in the blood
p. 250, 255.
Carbohydrates raise the blood concentration of triglycerides and very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDL); saturated fats raise the concentration of low-density lipoproteins (LDL). pp. 257, 259-260. High triglycerides predict heart disease. pp. 261-262.
Overindulgence in rice, flour, and sugar causes diabetes. --Indian physicians, 500s BCE. p. 211. Obesity is caused by starches, grains, and sugars in the diet. More or less rigid abstinence from these foods is the only viable solution. p. 358. --Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, /The Physiology of Taste/, 1825. "When I was growing up, everybody knew that eating too much sugar was what caused diabetes." p. 352. --Jesse Roth (1934- ), 2004. Diabetes becomes epidemic in populations eating more than 70 pounds of sugar per person per year (3 oz./day or 90 g/day). --George Campbell, 1966, p. 218. Weight loss, fat loss, and percent weight loss as fat, are inversely related to the level of carbohydrate in the diet. Carbohydrate restriction enables long-term weight loss and weight control, without hunger or fatigue. --Charlotte Young, 1973.
If a healthy person lives for 3 days on a carbohydrate-free diet, the liver changes fat into ketone bodies such as acetone and diacetic acid, which then appear in the urine. This is benign. The body and brain metabolize these ketone bodies instead of glucose. pp. 76-77, 159, 337.
Dogs with mild diabetes thrive on all-meat diets. Dogs with severe diabetes need to be calorie-restricted to keep them from ketoacidosis, coma, and death. pp. 72, 158.
The liver can synthesize glucose, even on a carbohydrate-free diet. pp. 45, 319-322. It breaks glycogen apart to do so. p. 327. If blood sugar drops too low, the pancreas secretes the hormone glucagon, signaling the liver to synthesize glucose. p. 326. The liver turns excess protein to glucose. p. 70. Glucagon signals the liver to turn amino acids to glucose, if blood glucose is low. p. 327. Only fat, fructose, and alcohol can be metabolized without a functional pancreas (and insulin-sensitive cells) to control blood glucose. pp. 62, 141. The easiest way to make a rat or mouse diabetic is, feed it lots of fructose. (Gary Taubes, The Case against Sugar, p. 351.) The brain uses 6 grams of glucose an hour, p. 327, 100 to 150 grams per day, p. 338. Or, the brain can use ketone bodies instead. p. 338.
Insulin is released by the pancreas in response to glucose in the blood. p. 153.
Effects of high blood sugar:
Effects of insulin: pp. 58-59
Effects of glucagon:
The effect of any diet is to be judged by those who follow it, not by those who break it. p. 3.
Many diabetics on insulin get fat, with ordinary amounts of food. pp. 132-133, 141-143, 161-162.
Successful treatment of obesity is rarely achieved in clinical practice. p. 163.
A new class of drugs has recently been shown to induce weight loss. Based on a hormone secreted from the gut, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1). Those who go off the drugs gain back the weight. pp. 23, 403. Long-term side effects are unknown.
Clinical trials necessary to rigorously assess the risks and benefits of diets of significantly different proportions of protein, fats, and carbohydrates have never been conducted. p. 14.
About 25% of medical spending in the U.S. is for diabetes care. p. 11.
Real-time, continuous, accurate glucose monitoring has been available since 2011. p. 395.
The greatest cause of tooth decay is acid from bacterial fermentation of starch and sugar. p. 229.
Insulin from 1922 to 1982 was taken from slaughtered pigs and cattle: 8,000 pounds of pancreases from 23,000 animals produced a pound of insulin. Since 1982, it's synthetic human insulin, produced by bacteria modified with the insulin-producing gene. p. 305.
Scientific knowledge advances as authorities who trumpeted false theories die. p. 249.
Physiology books:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Only low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets show consistent benefits. pp. 16, 265. The introduction of fat is the most important art in diabetic cookery. p. 39. Our brains are 60% fat. p. 57. If you're going to eat a vegetable, put cheese sauce or oil or butter or cream on it.
The diet that best prevents heart disease in /anyone/ is that which lowers blood sugar and minimizes insulin in the blood
p. 250, 255.
Carbohydrates raise the blood concentration of triglycerides and very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDL); saturated fats raise the concentration of low-density lipoproteins (LDL). pp. 257, 259-260. High triglycerides predict heart disease. pp. 261-262.
Overindulgence in rice, flour, and sugar causes diabetes. --Indian physicians, 500s BCE. p. 211. Obesity is caused by starches, grains, and sugars in the diet. More or less rigid abstinence from these foods is the only viable solution. p. 358. --Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, /The Physiology of Taste/, 1825. "When I was growing up, everybody knew that eating too much sugar was what caused diabetes." p. 352. --Jesse Roth (1934- ), 2004. Diabetes becomes epidemic in populations eating more than 70 pounds of sugar per person per year (3 oz./day or 90 g/day). --George Campbell, 1966, p. 218. Weight loss, fat loss, and percent weight loss as fat, are inversely related to the level of carbohydrate in the diet. Carbohydrate restriction enables long-term weight loss and weight control, without hunger or fatigue. --Charlotte Young, 1973.
If a healthy person lives for 3 days on a carbohydrate-free diet, the liver changes fat into ketone bodies such as acetone and diacetic acid, which then appear in the urine. This is benign. The body and brain metabolize these ketone bodies instead of glucose. pp. 76-77, 159, 337.
Dogs with mild diabetes thrive on all-meat diets. Dogs with severe diabetes need to be calorie-restricted to keep them from ketoacidosis, coma, and death. pp. 72, 158.
The liver can synthesize glucose, even on a carbohydrate-free diet. pp. 45, 319-322. It breaks glycogen apart to do so. p. 327. If blood sugar drops too low, the pancreas secretes the hormone glucagon, signaling the liver to synthesize glucose. p. 326. The liver turns excess protein to glucose. p. 70. Glucagon signals the liver to turn amino acids to glucose, if blood glucose is low. p. 327. Only fat, fructose, and alcohol can be metabolized without a functional pancreas (and insulin-sensitive cells) to control blood glucose. pp. 62, 141. The easiest way to make a rat or mouse diabetic is, feed it lots of fructose. (Gary Taubes, The Case against Sugar, p. 351.) The brain uses 6 grams of glucose an hour, p. 327, 100 to 150 grams per day, p. 338. Or, the brain can use ketone bodies instead. p. 338.
Insulin is released by the pancreas in response to glucose in the blood. p. 153.
Effects of high blood sugar:
* damages hemoglobin, to abnormal form A1C. p. 270. High levels of hemoglobin A1C (above 6% of hemoglobin pp. 301, 308) predict severity of diabetes, and risk of heart disease, stroke, and premature death. p. 271. (p. 370 defines 5.7% as prediabetic, 6.5% as diabetic.)
* Damaged proteins such as hemoglobin A1C are "advanced glycation end products (AGEs)," so acronymed as they are effects of age, accelerated by high blood sugar. These damaged proteins can knit together with other proteins, "cross-linking" to cause, for example, loss of elasticity in the skin, and stiffening joints, heart, lungs, and arteries, retinas, nerves, and kidneys. pp. 272-273.
* High blood sugar inside cells that can't regulate penetration of glucose into their interiors, can damage the cell's DNA, which can lead to cancer. p. 273.
* High blood sugar oxidizes the protein and fats of LDL in the blood, leading to plaque deposits in blood-vessel walls. p. 274. Saturated fat becomes LDL, so if you eat saturated fat AND carbohydrate, plaques form in your blood vessels. p. 274.
* damages the pancreas, reducing its ability to make insulin. p. 335.
Effects of insulin: pp. 58-59
* signals cells to take in glucose as fuel--which they then do unless they've become insulin resistant. p. 167. Insulin resistance leaves blood glucose high despite high levels of blood insulin. p. 263. Insulin injected to lower blood sugar /all/ goes into the blood circulation, so it all signals cells to take in glucose. Insulin from the pancreas first shuts off glucagon production p. 328, then goes to the liver, which releases only half of it into the bloodstream. p. 326.
* signals muscle and liver to store glucose in glycogen form (includes 3 water molecules per glucose molecule).
* signals the liver and fat cells to turn carbohydrates into fat, in the form of triglycerides. pp. 153, 159, 264.
* signals fat cells to sequester fatty acids. They do this at insulin concentrations so tiny other cells can't detect it. pp. 150, 154, 159-160.
* inhibits excretion of salt in the urine, which also retains water and raises blood pressure. p. 266
* enables fatty plaques to form in the walls of blood vessels, damaging them, harming the heart, kidneys, retinas, lower limbs. p. 183.
* causes weight gain, in part by sequestering fats in the fat cells and inhibiting the body's cells from metabolizing fat. Diabetics on sufficient insulin to control blood sugar to 150 to 200 mg/dl (normal range is 70 to 140 mg/dl p. 319), on the American Diabetes Association recommended diet of 50% carbohydrates, 15% protein, 35% fat, gain, on average, 10 pounds in a year, and keep it on, gaining weight even while eating less. pp. 308-309.
* Insulin injected to lower a diabetic's blood sugar, risks lowering it too much, sometimes to coma and death. p. 309. In health, the pancreas releases the counteracting hormone glucagon to keep blood sugar from going too low. Hypoglycemic coma occurs only by insulin injection. p. 326. Insulin inhibits the pancreas from releasing glucagon, which would have signaled the liver to convert glycogen and amino acids to glucose. p. 328. Coma commonly occurs at blood glucose levels around 45 mg/dl. p. 342. However, people adapted to using ketones instead of glucose as fuel have suffered no ill effects of blood glucose as low as 10 mg/dl. pp. 341, 445. [E.J. Drenick et al., 1972, "Resistance to Symptomatic Insulin Reactions after Fasting," The Journal of Clinical Investigation 51, no. 10 (Oct.): 2757-62.] Blood glucose levels above 180 mg/dl prompt the kidneys to excrete glucose in the urine. p. 342.
Effects of glucagon:
* raises blood sugar. If you have high blood sugar, you have high glucagon. Even if insulin is zero, we don't become diabetic unless the pancreas is oversecreting glucagon. p. 328. Injecting the hormone somatostatin reduces glucagon secretion, so lowers blood sugar. p. 328.
The effect of any diet is to be judged by those who follow it, not by those who break it. p. 3.
Many diabetics on insulin get fat, with ordinary amounts of food. pp. 132-133, 141-143, 161-162.
Successful treatment of obesity is rarely achieved in clinical practice. p. 163.
A new class of drugs has recently been shown to induce weight loss. Based on a hormone secreted from the gut, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1). Those who go off the drugs gain back the weight. pp. 23, 403. Long-term side effects are unknown.
Clinical trials necessary to rigorously assess the risks and benefits of diets of significantly different proportions of protein, fats, and carbohydrates have never been conducted. p. 14.
About 25% of medical spending in the U.S. is for diabetes care. p. 11.
Real-time, continuous, accurate glucose monitoring has been available since 2011. p. 395.
The greatest cause of tooth decay is acid from bacterial fermentation of starch and sugar. p. 229.
Insulin from 1922 to 1982 was taken from slaughtered pigs and cattle: 8,000 pounds of pancreases from 23,000 animals produced a pound of insulin. Since 1982, it's synthetic human insulin, produced by bacteria modified with the insulin-producing gene. p. 305.
Scientific knowledge advances as authorities who trumpeted false theories die. p. 249.
Physiology books:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
March 1, 2024
This life saving medical book is tough to read but a must if you are diabetic. I did not read Kindle so need to try to fix that endless problem. I checked out a library book which is due back.
Highly recommended to all diabetics and friends of diabetics.
Highly recommended to all diabetics and friends of diabetics.
March 10, 2024
Gary Taubes is one of my favourite science writers.
This book builds on a pseudo-series on diet and nutrition and (obviously, per the title) focuses on diabetes, and lapses in scientific judgement over the last ~100 years since insulin was discovered.
Taubes' argument: given that diabetes is either an insulin deficiency (type 1) or resistance (type 2), given that insulin is a hormone that (among other things) takes glucose from blood and stores it as fat, given that carbohydrates (especially refined carbs) cause blood sugar to spike, wouldn't it be logical to treat diabetes first with diet (focusing on low-carb) and then with insulin?
In fact, before insulin was discovered, the only effective treatments for diabetes were removing grains and plants from diets.
But from the 1930s to basically present day (though things are now slowly changing), the medical consensus has been dogmatically supporting the same high-carb, low-fat diet (that makes everyone else fat) for diabetics whose bodies cannot process carbohydrates.
Terrific read, it's inspired me to get my own diet in order again.... (I do not have diabetes)
This book builds on a pseudo-series on diet and nutrition and (obviously, per the title) focuses on diabetes, and lapses in scientific judgement over the last ~100 years since insulin was discovered.
Taubes' argument: given that diabetes is either an insulin deficiency (type 1) or resistance (type 2), given that insulin is a hormone that (among other things) takes glucose from blood and stores it as fat, given that carbohydrates (especially refined carbs) cause blood sugar to spike, wouldn't it be logical to treat diabetes first with diet (focusing on low-carb) and then with insulin?
In fact, before insulin was discovered, the only effective treatments for diabetes were removing grains and plants from diets.
But from the 1930s to basically present day (though things are now slowly changing), the medical consensus has been dogmatically supporting the same high-carb, low-fat diet (that makes everyone else fat) for diabetics whose bodies cannot process carbohydrates.
Terrific read, it's inspired me to get my own diet in order again.... (I do not have diabetes)
February 16, 2024
Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that this book is exactly what the subtitle says it is. The bad news is that this was exactly what the subtitle said it was.
This was a bit of a yawner for me. I almost didn't finish it today. I wanted to move on but I hate to leave a book unfinished.
I like this author. I like his research, but this one didn't work for me. There wasn't anything new here. It dragged a lot. So 2 stars.
This was a bit of a yawner for me. I almost didn't finish it today. I wanted to move on but I hate to leave a book unfinished.
I like this author. I like his research, but this one didn't work for me. There wasn't anything new here. It dragged a lot. So 2 stars.
January 3, 2024
Good book. Very thorough. If you like Taubes, you will enjoy this. If you are new to him and like very thorough research of a topic, you will love it!
February 13, 2024
A real eye opener. If I had to distill its message: get as close to a ketogenic diet(low carbs high fat aka The Atkins Diet) as you can in order to control weight,blood sugar, and diabetes. We’ve come full circle from the medical community initially describing the ketogenic diet as quackery to now praising its positive effects on health. You don’t need to be hungry and limit your total CALORIES—just control WHAT you eat. For example, I hate to give up beer and bananas but I will because it’ll help me lose weight and avoid diabetes.
April 15, 2024
Gary Taubes has written an outstanding book about the history of diabetes, T1 and T2. Anyone with diabetes or who has a family member with diabetes should read this book.
February 1, 2024
Excellent review of diet and diabetes.
May 7, 2024
This is a life changing book. Once again, Gary Taubes cracks open the current medical dogma and reveals the truth behind decades of nutrition science. This book is harder to get through than some of his others, but only because it is so packed with detailed history and science. It is fascinating, infuriating, and mind boggling. A must-read for current or future medical practitioners and patients who want to advocate for themselves in a system that has largely failed them thus far.
January 23, 2024
Taubes' book about diabetes reminds me very much of Siddartha Mukherjee's history of cancer treatment, Emperor of All Maladies. Although there is much less cutting in the history of diabetes treatment. But Taubes gives a thorough history of medical advances from the mid-19th century to today. That background is crucial in understanding some of the assumptions made by medical professionals that affect how diabetes is treated - or sometimes not treated - today. I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes just over ten years ago, and I learned things in this book about how diabetes works that no doctor or dietitian ever told me.
One of the surprises is the lack of clinical trials for alternatives to drug therapy. As Taubes describes it, the medical community pretty much assumed that patients generally would not want to do more hard work than necessary and would just prefer to attack the disease with drugs. I'd have to say that was my experience. I learned a lot, and am definitely rethinking diabetes in my own life.
One of the surprises is the lack of clinical trials for alternatives to drug therapy. As Taubes describes it, the medical community pretty much assumed that patients generally would not want to do more hard work than necessary and would just prefer to attack the disease with drugs. I'd have to say that was my experience. I learned a lot, and am definitely rethinking diabetes in my own life.
January 30, 2024
I am a huge fan of Taubes, and have read all of his previous books. In this case, however, I found no new information or insights. I think this book would be exceptionally suited to someone who is just beginning to explore the very low carbohydrate lifestyle as a way of managing, and even reversing, their type 2 diabetes.
Read
January 1, 2025A good book if you want an extensive history of diabetes treatment, mainly in the US. If you are looking for insight on how diabetes should best be treated, you may be disappointed. Although I did not rate book it is great for detailing how medical treatments are developed. However it will scare you. If like me you have always been interested in subjects medical and have a great degree of cynicism about the current state of medicine, it will definitely confirm the validity of that cynicism. And why in several centuries of research is the role of exercise never even mentioned???!!!!
November 3, 2024
If you don't care about diabetes this book may not be for you, but this type of writing is essential and the general point about how medical science gets perverted is important for everyone to understand.
Nerd addendum:
Taubes has written a whole series of books on sugar vs. fat in the diet. This one is different insofar as it's more about medical treatment of a disease than about population level prevention. So at the end, he gets into an important commentary on evidence-based medicine (EBM).
At the beginning of the EBM movement, the conventional wisdom opposed EBM because it was supposedly too "cookbook." Of course, the expert panel recommendations were cookbook, except their recipes were accepted on the authority of funny hats, or whatever superficial sign you use to tell a professional chef apart from an ordinary cook. Their recipes were not based on whether their dishes were poison or not, let alone if they tasted good or were nutritious. They were based on untested theories about the nature of certain ingredients.
Science is a rational process, but scientists are people and sometimes hold on to unproven dogmas spouted by naked emperors. This is a big problem. As Taubes discusses, the standard approach for dealing with this is to wait for each generation of experts to die. But that condemns millions of people to bad care, over and over.
One solution is for everyone who talks about science (including journalists) to look at Evidence instead of Eminence--in every topic. Very few people do that work. Gary Taubes does do it in his topic so he gets five stars. Trust in science is crashing, in part because the media can't get beyond just interviewing experts instead of looking stuff up. The relevant science about the low-fat diet has been there for decades. It's not that the "science keeps changing back and forth." It's that people fail to look at what the overall weight of the best available evidence shows, or to say "I don't know" when nobody does.
This book is mainly historical, so it doesn't deal much with Ozempic, etc. For a recent rumination on that, but not as rigorous as Taubes's approach: Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs
For practical tips on diabetes care, the book Taubes praises is:
Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars
For pondering why people don't speak up more to expose obvious BS:
Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times
The Rebel
Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud
Detroit: An American Autopsy
Nerd addendum:
Taubes has written a whole series of books on sugar vs. fat in the diet. This one is different insofar as it's more about medical treatment of a disease than about population level prevention. So at the end, he gets into an important commentary on evidence-based medicine (EBM).
At the beginning of the EBM movement, the conventional wisdom opposed EBM because it was supposedly too "cookbook." Of course, the expert panel recommendations were cookbook, except their recipes were accepted on the authority of funny hats, or whatever superficial sign you use to tell a professional chef apart from an ordinary cook. Their recipes were not based on whether their dishes were poison or not, let alone if they tasted good or were nutritious. They were based on untested theories about the nature of certain ingredients.
Science is a rational process, but scientists are people and sometimes hold on to unproven dogmas spouted by naked emperors. This is a big problem. As Taubes discusses, the standard approach for dealing with this is to wait for each generation of experts to die. But that condemns millions of people to bad care, over and over.
One solution is for everyone who talks about science (including journalists) to look at Evidence instead of Eminence--in every topic. Very few people do that work. Gary Taubes does do it in his topic so he gets five stars. Trust in science is crashing, in part because the media can't get beyond just interviewing experts instead of looking stuff up. The relevant science about the low-fat diet has been there for decades. It's not that the "science keeps changing back and forth." It's that people fail to look at what the overall weight of the best available evidence shows, or to say "I don't know" when nobody does.
This book is mainly historical, so it doesn't deal much with Ozempic, etc. For a recent rumination on that, but not as rigorous as Taubes's approach: Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs
For practical tips on diabetes care, the book Taubes praises is:
Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars
For pondering why people don't speak up more to expose obvious BS:
Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times
The Rebel
Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud
Detroit: An American Autopsy
September 28, 2024
I found this book to be rather boring. It was more like a history of diabetes, and I wasn’t sure what I should be rethinking. I usually really like Gary Taubes but this one wasn’t for me
February 14, 2024
Don’t buy this book if you are looking for authoritative directions for how best to deal with type1 or type 2 diabetes. Conclusive advice is simply not possible to give in 2024. We still await the trials that might make this possible. What Gary Taubes offers is invaluable – an extensive account of the merits of the approaches that have been taken to prolong life with diabetes. Equipped with this information, you will be in a better position to make decisions for yourself.
Before the discovery of insulin in 1921, diet was the only method through which diabetes could be controlled. However, doctors were by no means unanimous about an ideal diabetic diet. Gary Taubes deals with their varied recommendations in the first part of this book.
The discovery of insulin promised liberation from a restrictive diet. Diabetes was seen mainly as a disease where patients had lost their ability to regulate their blood sugar (glucose) level. If good glycemic control could be achieved, all would be well. This turned out to be less simple than anticipated. The appropriate dose depended on diet, and the appropriate diet depended on the insulin dose. The administration of insulin carried with it a lethal danger – the risk of hypoglycemia.
During the 1950s, stunning discoveries in biochemistry were announced. It had become possible to determine the sequence in which amino acids were linked to form proteins, and the first protein whose sequence was revealed was the relatively small insulin. In parallel with the work on proteins was that on DNA. The 1950s was the decade when Watson and Crick astonished the world with their model of the double helix. The future looked very bright, not just for diabetics. On the horizon lay the possibility of synthesising human insulin and perhaps even treating the disease at gene level.
Studies made possible through the use of radioisotopes and the ultracentrifuge in the 1960s allowed for the first time the measurement of circulating insulin and the separation of lipoproteins in blood according to their density. We learned that, although it is glucose derived from sugar and starch that stimulates a healthy pancreas to produce insulin, the tissue most sensitive to the hormone is fat. Fat tissue is metabolically very active. Mobilisation and deposition of fat goes on continuously. Fat tissue responds to insulin by synthesising and storing fat. Low levels of insulin stimulate the release of fat and its use as fuel. Our brains are not dependent on glucose, as once believed. They can also use ketones synthesised by the liver from fat.
Heart disease, a risk with diabetes, is elevated by the transport of fat in blood, not as cholesterol, but as triglycerides in very low density lipoproteins. The more insulin secreted, the greater the conversion of carbohydrate (sugar and starch) to triglycerides by liver cells. But isn’t diabetes associated with impaired insulin secretion, you ask? Not necessarily. High levels of insulin in blood can be found especially in type2. The patients have developed insulin resistance.
The 1970s ushered in an era of self monitoring, led by Richard Bernstein. By 1971 it had also been demonstrated that patients with diabetes (both types) manifest a relative or absolute excess of glucagon, the pancreatic hormone that raises blood sugar levels. Insulin, glucagon and other hormones act as an orchestra to achieve homeostatic harmony in a non-diabetic person. Because the insulin that is injected or infused in insulin therapy is not secreted by the pancreas, homeostatic responses are absent. As Gary Taubes puts it, ‘The body has lost its ability to protect itself in essence FROM insulin.’
1988 saw the introduction of Syndrome X, now known as metabolic syndrome, which is common to type2 diabetes, obesity and heart disease.
This book isn’t just for diabetics. It’s for all of us. Since he published ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’, many people are profoundly grateful to Gary Taubes.
Before the discovery of insulin in 1921, diet was the only method through which diabetes could be controlled. However, doctors were by no means unanimous about an ideal diabetic diet. Gary Taubes deals with their varied recommendations in the first part of this book.
The discovery of insulin promised liberation from a restrictive diet. Diabetes was seen mainly as a disease where patients had lost their ability to regulate their blood sugar (glucose) level. If good glycemic control could be achieved, all would be well. This turned out to be less simple than anticipated. The appropriate dose depended on diet, and the appropriate diet depended on the insulin dose. The administration of insulin carried with it a lethal danger – the risk of hypoglycemia.
During the 1950s, stunning discoveries in biochemistry were announced. It had become possible to determine the sequence in which amino acids were linked to form proteins, and the first protein whose sequence was revealed was the relatively small insulin. In parallel with the work on proteins was that on DNA. The 1950s was the decade when Watson and Crick astonished the world with their model of the double helix. The future looked very bright, not just for diabetics. On the horizon lay the possibility of synthesising human insulin and perhaps even treating the disease at gene level.
Studies made possible through the use of radioisotopes and the ultracentrifuge in the 1960s allowed for the first time the measurement of circulating insulin and the separation of lipoproteins in blood according to their density. We learned that, although it is glucose derived from sugar and starch that stimulates a healthy pancreas to produce insulin, the tissue most sensitive to the hormone is fat. Fat tissue is metabolically very active. Mobilisation and deposition of fat goes on continuously. Fat tissue responds to insulin by synthesising and storing fat. Low levels of insulin stimulate the release of fat and its use as fuel. Our brains are not dependent on glucose, as once believed. They can also use ketones synthesised by the liver from fat.
Heart disease, a risk with diabetes, is elevated by the transport of fat in blood, not as cholesterol, but as triglycerides in very low density lipoproteins. The more insulin secreted, the greater the conversion of carbohydrate (sugar and starch) to triglycerides by liver cells. But isn’t diabetes associated with impaired insulin secretion, you ask? Not necessarily. High levels of insulin in blood can be found especially in type2. The patients have developed insulin resistance.
The 1970s ushered in an era of self monitoring, led by Richard Bernstein. By 1971 it had also been demonstrated that patients with diabetes (both types) manifest a relative or absolute excess of glucagon, the pancreatic hormone that raises blood sugar levels. Insulin, glucagon and other hormones act as an orchestra to achieve homeostatic harmony in a non-diabetic person. Because the insulin that is injected or infused in insulin therapy is not secreted by the pancreas, homeostatic responses are absent. As Gary Taubes puts it, ‘The body has lost its ability to protect itself in essence FROM insulin.’
1988 saw the introduction of Syndrome X, now known as metabolic syndrome, which is common to type2 diabetes, obesity and heart disease.
This book isn’t just for diabetics. It’s for all of us. Since he published ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’, many people are profoundly grateful to Gary Taubes.
June 19, 2024
Rethinking Diabetes~~~
Diabetes is a very complex health condition, much more so than I realized before reading award-winning, science journalist Gary Taubes' big 2024 book Rethinking Diabetes: What Science Reveals About Diet, Insulin, and Successful Treatments. Neither Taubes nor myself have ever had diabetes. He has had a successful, forty-year career in writing about science, not just about diet, and I love to better understand nutrition and how it effects the body.
It's very likely that you know somebody who is diabetic, or prediabetic, or are yourself and so this review may upset or concern you, but please don't make sudden decisions about your diet or somebody else's diet. Seek out a diabetologist or nutritionist willing to work with you.
Before (nonsynthetic) insulin therapy was available in 1921, high-fat, low-carb and protein diets were very effective treatments for people with both types of diabetes.
Suddenly diabetes treatment was insulin-dominant and drug-centered because insulin could save emaciated, Type 1 patients even more dramatically. Insulin makes you gain more and more weight over use of insulin therapy as it is an unnatural insulin that does not tell the other pancreatic hormone glucagon to stop the liver from releasing glucose as natural insulin in a healthy person does. At the end of te book Taubes mentions that very recent weight-loss meds use synthetic glucagon, which means it only took diabetologists a full century to understand that to successfully treat diabetes, you need to know and use the science behind controlling blood sugar as the body naturally does.
Treatment after insulin therapy counseled high carb, low-fat and protein diets, in spite of no science backing this up, and diabetologists prescribed more insulin to try to correct the resulting high blood sugar and frequent hypoglycemic episodes that sent diabetics to the hospital. Diabetologists assumed diabetics wanted to eat like everyone else and that they wouldn't even want to self-monitor their blood sugar when the tool became available, let alone be trusted to do so. Diabetologists were so wrong.
Because nutritionists, dietitians, and other physicians like cardiologists were studying the problem of diabetes in connection to obesity and heart health, the treatment for diabetes began to change, especially after the 1979 book Dr. Atkin's Diet Revolution came out with his ketogenic diet for treating obesity and, I think, diabetes.
While the Virta Health clinical trial found that such a diet, very similar to the pre-insulin therapy diet, was heart-safe as well as very effective in treating Type 2 diabetes, which originally was known as non-insulin dependent diabetes, but it wasn't tested in Type 1 patients and there are no plans to do so.
I have also heard of diabetes responding very well to whole food, plant-based diets. The New York City mayor Eric Adams is a great, current example and his book Healthy At Last explains that he refused insulin therapy upon his Type 2 diabetes diagnosis and recovered his sight from diabetic complication in just months of a whole food-plant-based diet. How well you may respond will probably depend on how severe or chronic your diabetes is, how well you self-monitor your blood sugar and adjust your diet, how available fresh produce is, and your meal prep skills.
It's a fascinating book that really helped me appreciate that diabetics are individuals who will do best when they are given the option to adjust their diets and insulin therapy in a more natural way. I need to look up Dr. Richard Bernstein's diabetes books.
Diabetes is a very complex health condition, much more so than I realized before reading award-winning, science journalist Gary Taubes' big 2024 book Rethinking Diabetes: What Science Reveals About Diet, Insulin, and Successful Treatments. Neither Taubes nor myself have ever had diabetes. He has had a successful, forty-year career in writing about science, not just about diet, and I love to better understand nutrition and how it effects the body.
It's very likely that you know somebody who is diabetic, or prediabetic, or are yourself and so this review may upset or concern you, but please don't make sudden decisions about your diet or somebody else's diet. Seek out a diabetologist or nutritionist willing to work with you.
Before (nonsynthetic) insulin therapy was available in 1921, high-fat, low-carb and protein diets were very effective treatments for people with both types of diabetes.
Suddenly diabetes treatment was insulin-dominant and drug-centered because insulin could save emaciated, Type 1 patients even more dramatically. Insulin makes you gain more and more weight over use of insulin therapy as it is an unnatural insulin that does not tell the other pancreatic hormone glucagon to stop the liver from releasing glucose as natural insulin in a healthy person does. At the end of te book Taubes mentions that very recent weight-loss meds use synthetic glucagon, which means it only took diabetologists a full century to understand that to successfully treat diabetes, you need to know and use the science behind controlling blood sugar as the body naturally does.
Treatment after insulin therapy counseled high carb, low-fat and protein diets, in spite of no science backing this up, and diabetologists prescribed more insulin to try to correct the resulting high blood sugar and frequent hypoglycemic episodes that sent diabetics to the hospital. Diabetologists assumed diabetics wanted to eat like everyone else and that they wouldn't even want to self-monitor their blood sugar when the tool became available, let alone be trusted to do so. Diabetologists were so wrong.
Because nutritionists, dietitians, and other physicians like cardiologists were studying the problem of diabetes in connection to obesity and heart health, the treatment for diabetes began to change, especially after the 1979 book Dr. Atkin's Diet Revolution came out with his ketogenic diet for treating obesity and, I think, diabetes.
While the Virta Health clinical trial found that such a diet, very similar to the pre-insulin therapy diet, was heart-safe as well as very effective in treating Type 2 diabetes, which originally was known as non-insulin dependent diabetes, but it wasn't tested in Type 1 patients and there are no plans to do so.
I have also heard of diabetes responding very well to whole food, plant-based diets. The New York City mayor Eric Adams is a great, current example and his book Healthy At Last explains that he refused insulin therapy upon his Type 2 diabetes diagnosis and recovered his sight from diabetic complication in just months of a whole food-plant-based diet. How well you may respond will probably depend on how severe or chronic your diabetes is, how well you self-monitor your blood sugar and adjust your diet, how available fresh produce is, and your meal prep skills.
It's a fascinating book that really helped me appreciate that diabetics are individuals who will do best when they are given the option to adjust their diets and insulin therapy in a more natural way. I need to look up Dr. Richard Bernstein's diabetes books.
January 15, 2024
Honestly, as a Type 1 Diabetic, I knew I was going into this book heavily guarded. I was extremely surprised (as a heavy Diabetes-research reader) to within the first chapters notice some of my favorite resources, including the 2017 “Bright Spots & Landmines” by Adam Brown, my go-to for newly-diagnosed patients and friends. As an informative guide written by someone without personally being a Diabetic doctor or patient, it is informative, well-researched, and god, that Bibliography gives me butterflies. I would comment Taubes work towards providing a historically accurate version of the history of Diabetic treatment in the now 100+ years of insulin existence. However, I disagree with the basic information presented through the cover and blurb. As someone who had previously avoided Taubes work due to lack of relativity, I was unaware quite how much of this book would literally centre on diet. A decision, I understand, now I know more on his history and background, but found the bare information slightly misleading. As a Type 1, I have spent years avoiding the topics of ‘fat, obesity, food, carbohydrates’ outside of the work that must be undertaken, due to misconstrued public opinion, that at times this book could be considered to encourage. A book on Diabetes and Diet, I would never pick up, a book on Diabetes, Insulin, Diet and Successful treatments and what is revealed through the scientific research, I would. Although Taubes at least takes some effort in attempting to maintain a divide between the different types, their causes, their downfalls, it at times feels lacking. As if suggesting one-size fits all solutions are the way forward. I found the information generally well presented, and unlike other reviewers, I found the research and cross-referencing between sources incredibly appealing. Readability wise, for someone who knows little, or is entering the world of diabetes as a pre-diabetic or knows someone, I can see it as daunting; As a Type 1 Diabetic however, I appreciate the lengths Taubes has attempted to go to in ensuring his knowledge on the subject is well-founded and his reasonings well-equipped.
September 29, 2024
This is a detailed investigation into the history of diabetes (type 1 and type 2) research and treatment. Before the discovery of insulin, diabetes was treated almost entirely through diet, from meat and reliance on fats to repeated fasting and near-starvation regimens. After two centuries of differing medical advice, most authorities today think diabetics can have the same dietary freedom as the rest of us if insulin therapy and other blood-sugar-lowering medications are used. Unfortunately, these guiding principles have been associated with a dangerous rise in diabetes over the last 50 years.
The author argues for a refocused diet—fewer carbohydrates and more fat—and reduced reliance on insulin and other medications. He also suggests that doctors and medical researchers turn their attention to clinical trials and not be afraid to challenge established wisdom.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in diabetes or diagnosed with pre-diabetes or diabetes type 1 or type 2.
The author, Gary Taubes, is well known for his investigative reporting, and this book provides a deep dive into diabetes.
Even if you know what you are getting into and are a fan of the author’s work, it can be a bit overwhelming as you go through the book.
The author argues for a refocused diet—fewer carbohydrates and more fat—and reduced reliance on insulin and other medications. He also suggests that doctors and medical researchers turn their attention to clinical trials and not be afraid to challenge established wisdom.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in diabetes or diagnosed with pre-diabetes or diabetes type 1 or type 2.
The author, Gary Taubes, is well known for his investigative reporting, and this book provides a deep dive into diabetes.
Even if you know what you are getting into and are a fan of the author’s work, it can be a bit overwhelming as you go through the book.
December 1, 2025
Here’s what I learned in this book:
- that Type I and Type II diabetes are very different chronic diseases
- that my pre-diabetes is characterized by insulin resistance
- that my high blood pressure, frequent urination, sleep apnea, and swings in blood sugar are symptoms of my disease
- why my doctor is so concerned when I gain weight
- the drug therapies I am on look toward minimizing the long term impact of diabetes such as heart disease
- my current treatment may actually be exacerbating my obesity
- that high-fat low carb diet can effect sustainable wait loss for obese individuals
- in some cases Type II can be reversed
- I tried the semaglutide remedies for Type II but found the side effects too disagreeable. Even though it lowered my blood sugar to normal levels I abandoned it, fearing there was no other way out of a chronic illness. But I learned I was wrong. There is a way.
- that the medical establishment while well-meaning may have contributed to my ignorance of effective alternatives
- that Type I and Type II diabetes are very different chronic diseases
- that my pre-diabetes is characterized by insulin resistance
- that my high blood pressure, frequent urination, sleep apnea, and swings in blood sugar are symptoms of my disease
- why my doctor is so concerned when I gain weight
- the drug therapies I am on look toward minimizing the long term impact of diabetes such as heart disease
- my current treatment may actually be exacerbating my obesity
- that high-fat low carb diet can effect sustainable wait loss for obese individuals
- in some cases Type II can be reversed
- I tried the semaglutide remedies for Type II but found the side effects too disagreeable. Even though it lowered my blood sugar to normal levels I abandoned it, fearing there was no other way out of a chronic illness. But I learned I was wrong. There is a way.
- that the medical establishment while well-meaning may have contributed to my ignorance of effective alternatives
June 6, 2024
This was a weighty tome that puts forward a lot of arguments about how and why diabetes treatment lost its way, from a time where low carb was the only treatment, to the "low fat & carbs with every meal + snacks" advice which just saw diabetic patients slowly progressing to more & more medication and complications. This advice can still be seen in some NHS/NICE/Diabetes UK guidelines and older books - researching diabetes & prediabetes treatment is very confusing as there is still so much conflicting advice.
Having tried to lose weight for years unsuccessfully until I started reducing my carbs, it makes a lot of sense to me that my prediabetic body just can't handle too many carbs, probably due to my genetics.
However, I have only given this 3 stars as it became very repetitive and I found it a little dogmatic. It was not the book I was really looking for - it was a treatise while I was looking for a practical "How to reverse prediabetes" book. I skim read a lot of it.
Having tried to lose weight for years unsuccessfully until I started reducing my carbs, it makes a lot of sense to me that my prediabetic body just can't handle too many carbs, probably due to my genetics.
However, I have only given this 3 stars as it became very repetitive and I found it a little dogmatic. It was not the book I was really looking for - it was a treatise while I was looking for a practical "How to reverse prediabetes" book. I skim read a lot of it.
March 29, 2024
This took me quite a while to get through, and I'm not sure how much I can credit given that the author isn't a medical professional. He does have a strong background in research and journalism, so his writing is clear and easy to follow. His main thesis is similar to other books of his--that diet can control how we treat diabetes, and that restricting carbohydrates might be the best treatment. He also covers the history of diabetic treatment in America and Canada, and those stories were the most interesting part of the narrative. The amount of experimentation that took place around diabetes was appalling, and the fact that we have very little new diet research on the topic is also appalling. But there are significantly fewer diabetes-related deaths now, so the medicine side of the equation has all but been resolved and thank goodness for that.
April 27, 2025
A intriguing mix of science, history, and stories that shed a lot of light on the history of Diabetes.
The content, while not dry, is often "deep" or jargon-filled to a degree. Lots of science going on. It never gets overwhelming, but there are lots of terms and acronyms to hold onto.
Taubes has obviously done his homework and man, the science community really held onto some false dietary assumptions for decades and decades. It was fascinating as one that grew up with the "food pyramid" (carbs baby!) to hear how off base we were. At the same time I don't blame the scientific predecessors as it is so easy to go with the flow of the majority views.
If you have no connection to someone with diabetes you may struggle to stay engaged, but one with family and now a dog with diabetes it was an informative read.
The content, while not dry, is often "deep" or jargon-filled to a degree. Lots of science going on. It never gets overwhelming, but there are lots of terms and acronyms to hold onto.
Taubes has obviously done his homework and man, the science community really held onto some false dietary assumptions for decades and decades. It was fascinating as one that grew up with the "food pyramid" (carbs baby!) to hear how off base we were. At the same time I don't blame the scientific predecessors as it is so easy to go with the flow of the majority views.
If you have no connection to someone with diabetes you may struggle to stay engaged, but one with family and now a dog with diabetes it was an informative read.
February 10, 2024
The author doesn't seem to, but I personally, find it hard to overlook the size and length of the study of Seventh Day Adventists -- and the health benefits of their vegetarian diet, along with the negative effects to heart health by simply introducing meat occasionally. The confusing and conflicting nature of medical research and the personalities involved, including the pro-fat advocating author, makes it an interesting if not conclusive read.
While others here thank various companies for giving them access to pre-publication copies in exchange for reviews, I will give a shout out to my public library for making this book, along with thousands of others, available for me to read freely, then return to make available for others regardless of race, privilege or dietary preference.
While others here thank various companies for giving them access to pre-publication copies in exchange for reviews, I will give a shout out to my public library for making this book, along with thousands of others, available for me to read freely, then return to make available for others regardless of race, privilege or dietary preference.
April 8, 2024
Everything you ever wanted--or needed--to know about the history of diabetes, from its first diagnoses and early treatments to how standard of care changed with the availability of pharmaceuticals and injectable insulin to the most recent published evidence that both T1 and T2 diabetes are treatable with carbohydrate-restricted ketogenic diets. Hugely influential science writer Gary Taubes (Good Calories, Bad Calories) painstakingly lays out this tale of confused causes, and stubborn refusals to reverse course, which should thrill and enrage you. It should inspire hope that your fate is, in fact, in your hands. Buy this book for someone you love who has diabetes--for someone who has prediabetes! It'll be a best-seller. I hope our doctors are picking this up.
June 18, 2025
This book made me hate the world more but in a way that made me feel validated on my choices I’ve been making. It focuses on the history of diabetes treatments and how we ended up in the healthcare crisis we are in now. They’ve been prescribing a low carb high fat diet since before medications yet many doctors don’t trust their patients to follow any diet. There is a large disconnect between patients and doctors (and even doctors and newer doctors with newer research - a quote that struck me was from Isaac Newton, I believe -something like, “the best way to new scientific discoveries is through funerals”
September 18, 2025
I was always afraid of diabetes complications until I started to understand the subject properly. This page about type 1 diabetes complications helped me a lot. Be sure to check it out so that you get everything. Here, for example, you can find out which organs are most commonly affected and, most importantly, what you can actually do to reduce the risks. For example, regular eye and kidney examinations, plus modern CGM and insulin systems. I studied all this and then stopped living in fear and started treating sugar control as an investment in my future.
April 17, 2024
Always fantastic
Gary Taube always delivers great insights, thorough investigation and critical thinking. This time he even acknowledges his own possible biases, as good scientific literature should be. Taubes puts the spotlight on critical matters of obesity and diabetes with a fantastic overview of the disease and the development of treatments and therapies in a rigorous way that is rarely seen even in scientific literature. The state of affairs is such that "pop science" is now more rigorous than a lot of peer reviewed papers... Thanks, Gary Taubes for this great book.
Gary Taube always delivers great insights, thorough investigation and critical thinking. This time he even acknowledges his own possible biases, as good scientific literature should be. Taubes puts the spotlight on critical matters of obesity and diabetes with a fantastic overview of the disease and the development of treatments and therapies in a rigorous way that is rarely seen even in scientific literature. The state of affairs is such that "pop science" is now more rigorous than a lot of peer reviewed papers... Thanks, Gary Taubes for this great book.
June 1, 2024
This is a very thorough history of the research and development of medical practices around the treatment of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Very well written and while not prescriptive provides much food for thought regarding the use of low (or very low) carbohydrate and "high" fat diets to control blood sugars and thus the progress of diabetes. I highly recommend that anyone with diabetes read this book, particularly the last five chapters, and consider for themselves whether or not such a diet would be beneficial.
July 29, 2024
It’s fascinating to learn that many of the things claimed to be facts of health science are just assumptions made by doctors and clinicians who became famous, so other agencies and doctors accept them as gospel. Taubes, the author, makes an effort to explain the history of diabetes treatments in layperson’s terms, but be prepared to also see scientific terms used. The main part of the book is 400+ pages but then there are extensive notes, a bibliography, and an index that makes the page count much higher.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews