Jack comments on Critiquing Gary Taubes, Part 4: What Causes Obesity? - Less Wrong

7 Post author: ChrisHallquist 31 December 2013 10:04PM

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Comment author: Jack 06 January 2014 09:39:37AM *  3 points [-]

That you would say this tells me that your picture of how mainstream science works and the merits of Taubes' critique is even more distorted than I realized.

That was fun, but seriously. I posted it precisely because the nonsense about sat fat causing heart disease is one of Taubes biggest cudgels against nutrition science and it's something many experts are now admitting the medical establishment has been wrong about for decades. I'm confused how you came to a conclusion about Taubes without looking into it. It's probably what he deserves the most credit for.

E.g. Stephan Guyenet, whose arguments against Taubes account of carbs and insulin causing weight gain you posted earlier, thinks that no unbiased person who is familiar with the literature can believe there is a causal link between sat fat and cholesterol and heart disease.

Comment author: ChrisHallquist 06 January 2014 06:11:05PM 0 points [-]

It's possible Taubes is right about saturated fat, but he's sufficiently unreliable on other issues that I wouldn't trust a word he says about saturated fat.

And yes, this matters, because prior to this series Taubes was who everyone was citing for the "look how horribly wrong mainstream nutrition science is" claim.

Comment author: Jack 07 January 2014 06:50:43AM 0 points [-]

FYI, I'm going to keep citing him.