Gary Taubes: MAHA, Ultra-Processed Foods, and Bad Science
Science journalist Gary Taubes discusses the MAHA Report, new dietary guidelines, and bad nutrition science on the latest episode of Just Asking Questions.
Can Robert F. Kennedy Jr. put the country on a diet and Make America Healthy Again? Just asking questions.
The MAHA Report is a 73-page document put out by a government commission headed by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary RFJ Jr. Its goal is to "study the scope of the chronic childhood disease crisis and any potential causes including the American diet." The report points out that childhood obesity rates in the U.S. remain higher than in other G7 countries.
We invited Gary Taubes to join us today because he's a science journalist and researcher who has spent more than two decades studying the American diet. His books include Good Calories, Bad Calories, Why We Get Fat, and The Case Against Sugar. He writes about nutrition science in his Substack, Uncertainty Principles, where he has tackled the question of whether ultra-processed foods are the likely culprit driving America's obesity problem.
We also discuss whether RFK Jr. is more likely to improve or derail U.S. health and nutrition research, the recent resignation of one of the National Institutes of Health's top nutrition researchers, and a challenge to Taubes' "sugar hypothesis" from the pseudonymous blogger Cremieux Recueil.
Mentioned in the podcast:
"The MAHA Report," by the White House
Spectrum of processing of foods based on the NOVA classification
"Are Ultra-Processed Foods the Problem?" by Gary Taubes
"Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025," by the U.S. Department of Agriculture"
"Nutrition Beliefs Are Just-So Stories," by Cremieux Recueil
"Why Conventional Wisdom on Health Care Is Wrong (a Primer)," by Random Critical Analysis
"Top NIH scientist speaks out, says research was 'censored' under RFK Jr.," NIH researcher Kevin Hall on MSNBC's All-In with Chris Hayes
Chapters:
0:00—What does Gary Taubes think of the MAHA agenda?
2:10—What is wrong with the "American diet"?
6:48—Why is nutrition science so sloppy?
10:22—What's in the MAHA Report?
12:25—Have childhood diseases and disorders really been increasing?
17:02—How bad are "ultra-processed" foods?
27:42—Using "Occam's Razor" to figure out what's making Americans unhealthy
33:15—Taubes replies to Cremieux's criticism of his "sugar hypothesis"
40:42—Critiquing the "definitive" NIH study on ultra-processed foods
52:43—How much does willpower or self-control matter in controlling obesity?
1:03:14—Why a leading NIH nutrition researcher resigned from RFK Jr.'s HHS
1:08:22—Why Taubes thinks Jay Bhattacharya might make the NIH more functional
1:18:54—What's a question Taubes thinks more people should be asking?
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Portion control. Choice of foods. Individual responsibility - get rid of socialized health insurance.
Every thing in moderation and all things are toxic, it's the dose that's the poison.
"Moderation is for Monks; to enjoy life, take big bites."
L. Long
Yes - the health issues are significantly greater in GOP-voting counties* and you obviously agree that healthier Democratic counties shouldn't be subsidising the GOP counties through socialised medicine,
* https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0254001
Without socialized health insurance, poor people and elderly people won't be able to afford it. I guess your treatment for their illnesses is Let Them Die. And you wonder why most Americans think Libertarians lack compassion.
That's the stupidest thing any person could say. Congratulations on being a complete fucking retard.
The only way for overweight and obese people to reduce and maintain their weight is by increasing physical activity (i.e. burning off more calories) and consuming fewer calories (just as they increased their weight by consuming too many calories and burning off too few calories).
The easiest way to reduce calorie consumption is by sharply reducing consumption of "added sugars", which has skyrocketed from 5lbs/person/year to 100lbs/person/year during the past 200 years. I suggest limiting consumption of added sugars to 50 calories (i.e. 12 grams) per day.
Meanwhile, nutritional epidemiologic studies confirm that humans who primarily consume plants (i.e. >90% of total calories) have far lower rates of obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease, high cholesterol, hypertension, blood pressure and breast, colon and prostate cancers.
And yet, animal and dairy products account for more than 33% of most Americans overall diet, while meat and diary consumption has sharply increased during the past 30 years.
Unfortunately for public health, the meat, diary, sugar and Big Food industries don't want Americans (nor anyone else) to know that excessive consumption of meat, diary and added sugar products are the leading cause of America's obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc. epidemic.
Annual meat consumption in America has sharply increased from 90 lbs per person to 160 lbs during the past century.
Meanwhile, US annual per capita consumption of diary products has increased from 550 lbs in 1992 to 660 lbs today.
Once again, the best way to reduce America's chronic disease problems is to reduce consumption of meat, dairy, added sugar
and alcohol, while getting more physical activity.
Those are bullshit studies and do not take into account that people who switch to plant based diets are generally more concerned with their health vs the average person. When you account for that, this supposed "healthy plant based diet" turns out to be complete bullshit.
Anyone who writes a book entitled "the case against sugar" is a complete hack.