Book Three: Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It, by Gary Taubes

I don't know why I chose this book. I am not fat, but I have always found obesity interesting, and I feel compassion for those who struggle all of their lives with unwanted pounds. I have always wondered why this is such a struggle for some people, and then not for other people. And to tell the truth, I am always afraid that it will become a problem for me. Particularly as I graduate into those solid "middle age" years, I want to fight the "muffin top."

You could just read this book to try to find out why we get fat and what to do about it. And if you do, you will find solid research to answer that question. Not to give away too much, but the answer is "carbs." So there you go. Maybe you don't have to read it at all. That's your take away point.

But after reading it through to find out why people get fat, and how to avoid that condition, I read it again, most of it anyway, as a story about how medical research is conducted and interpreted for the public. Taubes tells a fascinating story about the failure of the medical establishment to look critically at data. He attacks the "calorie in, calorie out" paradigm of weight gain (or loss) but writes a fascinating account of how that paradigm was promoted despite clear weaknesses in the data upon which it was based.

So read it for a story of "bad science" or read it as a self help book. It's a great read. Taubes makes the science very easy to understand, and documents the book well.