[b3b0p]

I'm going to get downvoted, I can see it coming. However, it must be said, because I'm sick of seeing Taubes used as reference.

Taubes is a loon.

He picks out pieces of studies to back up his statements to sell more books and make more money on speeches. What he says is basically what people want to hear.

Just because Gary Taubes says it's true does not make it so. Has anyone gone and reviewed the studies in full that he has referenced? Does everyone just take his word for everything he says? There is a lot of love for Taubes on Hacker News. I expected people on here to be much more knowledgable about this topic, but I'm severely disappointed to find out that it seems the majority of Hacker News users fall into the typical American fad diet beliefs (previously, it was no fat and now it's no carbs). What's next?

People who believe Taubes usually fall into one of the following categories being thrown around the fitness community: Ketard, Carbphobe, Carb Taliban, to name some.

[fhoxh]

Do you think the two hundred and fifty MDs and PhDs that just this month signed[1] his petition[2] are also loons?

Or perhaps you think Walter Willett M.D., Ph.D., and David Ludwig M.D., Ph.D., of Harvard--two of the foremost nutrition authorities in the US--who agree with Taubes, are also loons?

Maybe you think all of these individuals simply don't bother to do due diligence on what they read? Or maybe you think they are suffering from insufficient intellect such that they're incapable of detecting your accusations of cherry-picking and snake oil?

I'm also a bit lost with your characterization of a low carb diet as a fad diet. Surely you understand that this is the diet our ancestors were exposed to during millions of years of hominid evolution?

[1] http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/response-to-nytimes-the-f... [2] http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/response-to-nytimes-the-f...

[codergirl]

Even if that's true, the food industry does all kinds of lobbying and has ties with agricultural companies and has instilled upon us this conventional wisdom that whole grains are great for you and calories in = calories out with no distinction between types of calories.

Yeah, so two wrongs don't make a right, but I think he's justified that he feels like making extreme conclusions will make people question the conventional wisdom that has been steering us in the opposite (and in my opinion, wrong) direction.

[frankc]

Every study I have ever seen that put low carb diets head to head with other diets result in at worst, equivalent weight loss and usually more weight loss, with better other bioindicaters. Unfortunately many of these studies are brain dead in that they only weight body weight and not body composition, but given that other studies have shown that high protein diets lead to better muscle preservation, and a low-carb diet is generally higher protein than a low-calorie diet, I would bet money that even in studies where low-carb diets produce equivalent weight loss they have produced superior fat loss and superior muscle preservation.

[stonemetal]

I'm going to get downvoted, I can see it coming. However, it must be said, because I'm sick of seeing Taubes used as reference. Taubes is a loon.

Yeah, well name calling isn't a good argument so the down vote foresight was an easy one to call. http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html

At least Taubes uses a few scientific studies to back up his point. If you have better science to backup whatever your position is I would love to see them.