The Case Against
Sugar by Gary Taubes appeared on shelves during interesting times in
America. Some might think that we are a
nation already too distracted by political discord to care much about the
history of the sugar industry. Not
true. His central message – sugar is the
real villain; do not trust what you are told by or about the sugar industry –
is especially well-occasioned.
There are 384 well-researched pages, which recount the abuses, the bully-marketing and manipulations, and the pseudo-science behind this mega-monopoly's death grip on the American food industry.
There are 384 well-researched pages, which recount the abuses, the bully-marketing and manipulations, and the pseudo-science behind this mega-monopoly's death grip on the American food industry.
We are a nation reeling from a loss of trust
in our (heretofore) primary sources of reliable data – main stream media,
science, education. There is a now a collective
discomfort with received wisdom, which actually offers auspiciously fertile
ground for the evidence on the sooty shenanigans of the sugar business. This book fits hand-in-glove with our nation’s
(general) rude awakening. We are paying
attention now, and it is just in time to hear Mr. Taubes preach it.
The author studied applied physics,
aerospace engineering and journalism at Harvard, Stanford and Columbia, respectively.
So, he’s no slouch. It is also not his only book on why America is
getting fatter and fatter. He has applied himself to this topic and his honest
interest in it can be seen in his careful attention to chronology and his
passionate but evenhanded delivery. The
chemistry of sugar, for those of us who are not “sciencey”, can be off-putting,
but Taubes has made it highly approachable and crystal clear without
sacrificing any content. His criticisms
are grounded in well-referenced facts and are delivered in non-polarizing
language. Amen, for that.
When marveling over the deceits of the sugar
industry, which as Taubes points out are most analogous to the deceits of the
tobacco industry, I was reminded of Nassim Taleb’s observations (Black Swan and
Anti-Fragile) about the inner circle of experts and policymakers:
“With….. dietary
advice reversing after 30 years of fatphobia, macroeconomic analysis working
worse than astrology, microeconomic papers wrong 40% of the time, the
appointment of Bernanke who was less than clueless of the risks, and
pharmaceutical trials replicating only 1/5th of the time, people are perfectly
entitled to rely on their own ancestral instinct and listen to their
grandmothers with a better track record than these policymaking goons.” Nassim Taleb
I don’t know about you but I wish I had
listened to my grandmom’s warnings about sugar. The lies we have been told by
our betters and the lies we tell ourselves are thriving still. This quote from Taubes captures it:
“By specifying energy or caloric content as the
instrument through which foods influence body weight, it implies that a calorie
of sugar would be no more or less capable of causing obesity, and thus
diabetes, than a calorie of broccoli or olive oil or eggs or any other food. By
the 1960s, the phrase “a calorie is a calorie” had become a mantra of the
nutrition-and-obesity research community, and it was invoked to make just this
argument (as it still is).” Gary Taubes
If you still believe
that a calorie is just a calorie – read this book. You will come away with the right information
to fix that common delusion. Two thumbs
up for The Case Against Sugar and for Mr. Taubes, who has delivered the depth
and breadth of research needed for a serious do-over.
