The Case for Keto: Rethinking Weight Control and the Science and Practice of Low-Carb, High-Fat Eating, by Gary Taubes

With no ‘splashy’ medical dramas or ludicrous lifestyle choices marring the pages, The Case for Keto is a cut above the standard self-help diet book. Taubes tells a personal story of health, fitness and weight loss that is wholly relatable to anyone who struggles with their own weight.

The Case for Keto is a clear-eyed, rational, and science-based survey of our current diet knowledge. Why does a plate full of Thanksgiving dinner land on your hips? How is it that we’re told by experts to eat less saturated fat—one of the most fundamental facts about our food—and yet the incidence of obesity continues to spike?  Taubes claims that the answer lies in carbohydrates. For most of his adult life, he had believed that fat was bad for him and that the “main dietary threat to our health” came from the high-fat foods (that he used to eat but no longer does) and sugars (which, now, he believes are “far more devastating to human health than any other calories”.

It took Taubes about 20 years to arrive at what he calls “keto-adapted” – in other words, a state where your body has become accustomed to burning fat, rather than sugar, as its primary fuel. On his way there he had some fascinating insights about just how wrong the information we take for granted is in nutrition. Almost all the main sources of nutritional advice for decades have been directed at avoiding fat – but when this is applied to the diet of a natural carnivore such as man it had some disastrous consequences.

The Case for Keto is a book that I would describe as transformative. It got me started with keto, and the author, an investigative science journalist called Gary Taubes, was brave enough to present many of his findings to the New York Times – a publication not known for being sympathetic towards diets. It all changed when he was asked to look at the advice given in the following article,7 and whether it could be causing more harm than good:

The Case for Keto Review

A few weeks ago, I received a review copy of The Case for Keto , an e-book co-authored by my friend and NYT bestselling author Gary Taubes. I said that I’d read it and write a blurb, but honestly, I wasn’t even sure if it was a diet book. What is keto?

In his book, Taubes suggests that there are indeed a few credible ways to lose weight. It’s not actually New Year’s Resolution season anymore, but this is the time of year when many of us decide to change our diets. Taubes’s work deserves our attention because it tackles the assumption that obesity is, and always will be, a fact of life. It’s not a question of willpower and motivation; it’s not about using iPhone apps to track your calories. It’s about understanding what we should and shouldn’t eat for our body types.

When it comes to food, Taubes is not a libertarian. He wants governments to make recommendations based on the best available science. Since he believes that nutritional science is corrupt, he’s not optimistic about their ability to do that. The practical and obvious solution, then, is to get individuals out of the business of regulating their own diets by eating what they like: “Let’s just start saying that if you eat too much [he didn’t say what ‘too much’ was], you’re responsible for your obesity. And if you’re diabetic because you don’t take insulin . . . well, let us know how that works out for you.” His diet advice is also