One problem with all these debates about nutrition and exercise is that they mostly don’t take into account individual differences. How exactly your body will react to a certain regime of diet and exercise, and which regimes are compatible with reaching and maintaining your optimal weight while feeling good and healthy—the correct answers to these questions depend very strongly on your genotype, and possibly also on a number of entirely non-obvious and unknown environmental and lifestyle factors. (And to make things especially un-PC, the relevant genetic factors seem to correlate strongly with ethnic origin, since they’ve evolved significantly during the last few thousand years. This has been proven conclusively only for a few things like lactose tolerance, but it seems quite plausible that analogous group differences exist for other nutrients too.)
Therefore, except for a few simple observations like e.g. that you need some vitamin C to avoid scurvy, promoting certain diet guidelines as universally valid for all humans can’t be other than nonsense. It’s similar to those silly government propaganda campaigns about “safe” drinking limits that supposedly hold for everyone, whereas in reality, some people can drink a bottle of whiskey a day and nevertheless live long and productive lives (and never even appear visibly drunk), while others would be killed sooner or later by a fraction of that—and yet others suffer from complete alcohol intolerance and get sick even from a single drink. Similarly, I have no doubt that some people exist for whom carbohydrates are as bad as Taubes says, but I also have no doubt that for many others, his claims are exaggerated to the point of nonsense, and I strongly suspect that the latter group includes a great majority of individuals in at least some ethnic groups.
As the bottom line, until scientists gain a much better understanding of the genetic and other factors involved, there really is no good way to go except self-experimentation. The only time I got into such a bad shape that I had to lose weight, I managed to devise a regime that enabled me to lose a pound a week with only a small expense of willpower, which was however completely unlike anything I’ve ever read from any side in the diet/exercise controversies—and I doubt it would work for very many other people.
One problem with all these debates about nutrition and exercise is that they mostly don’t take into account individual differences.
Exactly. The “Typical body fallacy”.
The only time I got into such a bad shape that I had to lose weight, I managed to devise a regime that enabled me to lose a pound a week with only a small expense of willpower, which was however completely unlike anything I’ve ever read from any side in the diet/exercise controversies
If you’re in the market for idiosyncratic weight-loss anecdotes: I lost 30 pounds in a month by having a stroke and spending that month in a rehab center with right-side hemiplegia, then another 20 over the next three months or so on a diet that was 90% homemade soup and roasted vegetables, with a scheduled Indulgence Night every few weeks where I went out and ate whatever the hell I wanted.
I’ve since then gained about half of that weight back by eating out more often.
One problem with all these debates about nutrition and exercise is that they mostly don’t take into account individual differences. How exactly your body will react to a certain regime of diet and exercise, and which regimes are compatible with reaching and maintaining your optimal weight while feeling good and healthy—the correct answers to these questions depend very strongly on your genotype, and possibly also on a number of entirely non-obvious and unknown environmental and lifestyle factors. (And to make things especially un-PC, the relevant genetic factors seem to correlate strongly with ethnic origin, since they’ve evolved significantly during the last few thousand years. This has been proven conclusively only for a few things like lactose tolerance, but it seems quite plausible that analogous group differences exist for other nutrients too.)
Therefore, except for a few simple observations like e.g. that you need some vitamin C to avoid scurvy, promoting certain diet guidelines as universally valid for all humans can’t be other than nonsense. It’s similar to those silly government propaganda campaigns about “safe” drinking limits that supposedly hold for everyone, whereas in reality, some people can drink a bottle of whiskey a day and nevertheless live long and productive lives (and never even appear visibly drunk), while others would be killed sooner or later by a fraction of that—and yet others suffer from complete alcohol intolerance and get sick even from a single drink. Similarly, I have no doubt that some people exist for whom carbohydrates are as bad as Taubes says, but I also have no doubt that for many others, his claims are exaggerated to the point of nonsense, and I strongly suspect that the latter group includes a great majority of individuals in at least some ethnic groups.
As the bottom line, until scientists gain a much better understanding of the genetic and other factors involved, there really is no good way to go except self-experimentation. The only time I got into such a bad shape that I had to lose weight, I managed to devise a regime that enabled me to lose a pound a week with only a small expense of willpower, which was however completely unlike anything I’ve ever read from any side in the diet/exercise controversies—and I doubt it would work for very many other people.
Exactly. The “Typical body fallacy”.
Please tell me more!
If you’re in the market for idiosyncratic weight-loss anecdotes: I lost 30 pounds in a month by having a stroke and spending that month in a rehab center with right-side hemiplegia, then another 20 over the next three months or so on a diet that was 90% homemade soup and roasted vegetables, with a scheduled Indulgence Night every few weeks where I went out and ate whatever the hell I wanted.
I’ve since then gained about half of that weight back by eating out more often.