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

The Case for Keto: Rethinking Weight Control and the Science and Practice of Low-Carb/High-Fat Eating Reviews

• 
  Gretchen Rubin

  We interviewed Gary Taubes about this book in episode 308 of the "Happier with Gretchen Rubin" podcast. As I write about in my book about habit change, "Better Than Before," Taubes's work changed my life (and my father's life).
• 
  Mara

  With his characteristic clarity and persuation, Gary Taubes extrapolates on his previous work that has focused on the correlation between obesity/weight gain and sugars & starches. This isn't a diet book; rather, it is a 101 on how the science behind LCHF ways of eating makes these approaches appropriate for many obese or overweight individuals who have not seen success with conventional wisdom (e.g. eat less, exercise more). I would definitely recommend this as a good place to start for folks who are dipping their toes into the world of keto, paleo, or LCHF, and I appreciate that this focuses on the foundational science concepts rather than a lot of specific praxis
• 
  Alicia Bayer

  I read a lot of health and diet books from all sides and am generally skeptical of most of them. I've been familiar with the keto diet since before it was a weight loss "fad" and recommended it in my health and parenting columns years ago as something to look into for parents of children with uncontrolled epilepsy since that's what doctors at the Mayo Clinic designed it for originally, nearly a hundred years ago now. It was astonishingly effective for those children without the devastating side effects of the drugs they generally were prescribed instead. But I was just never convinced that it was a safe and practical diet for weight loss, especially long term -- until this book.
  
  Taubes' depth of research is remarkable. He goes all the way back, sometimes to the 1800's or earlier, looking at what has worked and what hasn't, what doctors know and what they've just always assumed, and what studies have shown. He explains very succinctly why carbohydrates trigger the release of insulin and the message to quickly store food as fat, and that the threshold is different for different people. He tells the stories of countless formerly obese people who regained their health and got to healthy weights by eating LCHF/keto diets. He does what most keto diet books don't do too, by discussing murkier issues like cholesterol, the effects of this kind of eating on the planet, limits of the diet, what we don't know about long term effects, what further tweaks might be needed, what the studies say, and so on. With other keto books, I always found myself asking things like why the Mediterranean diet works so well for so many. Taubes answers that. He also interviewed over 140 physicians and others who use the diet to treat hundreds of thousands of patients, and he's used the diet himself for decades to stay healthy. He gives practical advice and focuses on doing keto in a healthy way.
  
  My late mother had Cushing's Disease and a brain tumor that caused uncontrolled weight gain. I remember her eating a near-starvation level of calories and still gaining weight. She spent hours jumping on a trampoline and doing aerobics, and still got more and more obese. I remember how people treated her and the assumptions they made about her, and the doctor who fired her because he told her "I don't like fat people." I also watched my disabled husband head to the gym every single day for nearly a year and carefully monitor his eating and still lose just token weight. He and I used to eat roughly the same amount of food, and he was well over 200 pounds while I was barely over 100 (though hitting my 40's helped even out things). The advice of eat less and move more just quite simply doesn't work for many people, and this book helps explain why.
  
  Well recommended, especially for skeptics who need lots of research and science to back up the claims.
  
  I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.
• 
  Brahm

  I don't read diet books, I read Gary Taubes books.
  
  Taubes is a fantastic journalist and author with a focus over the last 20 years on diet and nutrition. I've read
  Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease (
  review),
  The Case Against Sugar (
  review), and
  Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion (
  review - this one from 1993 pre-dates his fixation on eating, but sets up his credibility as a great scientific and investigative journalist).
  
  The Case for Keto reads like a more accessible and less technical edition of Good Calories, Bad Calories. It's shorter by half. It's packed full of new info, research and interviews regarding LCHF (low-carb, high-fat) eating and its impacts- Taubes uses the term "LCHF/ketogenic" consistently throughout. As he writes in the intro, this book is a work of journalism masquerading as a self-help book. There are no recipes.
  
  What consistently blows my mind when reading Taubes is how slow the medical establishment is to abandon the "dietary fat is bad" idea, that (Taubes shows) was instantiated in the 1950s with virtually no evidence. Why should we care? This hypothesis, along with the also-unsubstantiated "energy balance" theory of metabolism and dieting (i.e. calories in = calories out) and a non-uncommon perception that "a calorie is a calorie" have caused a terrific amount of misery for eaters, myself included.
  
  How? Why? If the ground rules for "healthy eating" laid out by the medical establishment are valid, why are we in an obesity epidemic? Taubes, nor I, think Frito Lay and Pepsi are solely to blame. Cutting back on dietary fat is a double edged sword: you reduce satiety (fat is the most "filling") and you have to displace fat with something else - usually carbs. As we learned in Good Calories, Bad Calories, carbs (especially refined carbs) are quickly metabolized into the bloodstream as glucose, elevated blood sugar causes the pancreas to secrete insulin, insulin prompts your body to burn carbs for fuel (also causing a hunger response) AND store glucose as glycogen and fat AND hold onto the fat it already has. So "low fat" diets CAN (not always) make it super difficult to lose weight. Low on fat = higher on carbs = body in carb burning, fat-storing mode.
  
  Taubes goes into detail on is what ketosis is (the state where your body switches from storing fat to burning fat) and how one can get into that state. He covers endless studies and interviews endless physicians who have used HCLF/ketogenic diets to treat patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes and related symptoms to see those conditions and their related medications disappear. The second-last chapter on how to start LCHF/ketogenic habits was a bit weak, but the rest of the book was solid.
  
  What's fascinating about LCHF/ketogenic is that these foods are more satiating (think: I can eat a Costco bag of Ruffles All-Dressed Chips, but only a few huge slices of cheddar cheese) AND keep you in the ketogenic, fat-burning state and out of fat-storage mode. This is the SECRET KNOWLEDGE that's been peddled through books like Atkins and Wheat Belly and most diet books, but Taubes backs it up with the science, not the woo-woo bullshit.
  
  I get super worked up reading Taubes (then writing afterwards) because I feel like for most of my life, most health authorities' eating programs are mystical "woo-woo" BS that work for some people, not for others. In doctor's offices and online weight-loss communities, "calories in = calories out" is unquestionable dogma because it works for some people. But imagine we're all biological beings with different trigger levels for entering a ketogenic (fat-burning) state? Imagine a slight imbalance in insulin (or other hormones - sex hormones also affect weight) that makes it a bit harder to exit fat storage and enter fat-burning mode?
  
  So picture me in early 2015, at 250 lbs, over 30 BMI, the definition of obese! I started counting calories under the calories in = calories out dogma and lost over 50 pounds that year. For all of 2016, 17 and 18 I counted calories to maintain that weight loss. Every meal. So counting calories works, but very often I'm feeling hungry, very often not feeling full, and it's really intrusive and time-consuming. In late 2018 I read Good Calories, Bad Calories and the light bulb went off! Here is the SECRET KNOWLEDGE about how your body ACTUALLY METABOLIZES MACRONUTRIENTS! If you know how the system works you can address it with high-level solutions, not band-aids and artificial constraints (like how I now view counting calories). Now I just eat less carbs (not no carbs), way more satiating (high-fat) foods and I've stayed on setpoint with ease since then. Always full, never hungry.
  
  I am not sharing my personal details to humble-brag or get internet points, but because I know there are other analytical thinkers like me who would benefit from this SECRET KNOWLEDGE. If you dive deep and try to understand the scientifically well-understood mechanisms of fat storage and metabolism, Taubes' hypothesis and messages seems not only plausible, but so crystal-clear you'll be as angry as I am for not learning any of this in school, or seeing food guides that recommend 5-7 servings of grains and cereals per day when we KNOW WHAT THOSE DO TO OUR BODIES.
  
  tl;dr recommended reading for husky analytical people (or anyone)
• 
  Andy

  It's hard to admit your knowledge is imperfect and yet come up with a reasonable plan of action based on the overall weight of the best available evidence. Taubes deserves great credit for traveling that difficult path. This book goes over the same territory as his previous books. The plus-value here is the perspective of twenty years of trying to convince the world about something, and trying to understand why experts, policymakers and the general public reject that something and instead cling to dogma that clearly doesn't work and that seems to be doing tremendous harm. That was fascinating. We're talking about medical science, and what helps people in the real world to lose weight and decrease diabetes, etc. And yet the way that the more effective approach is gaining ground is that individual physicians are having "conversion experiences," which is religious talk. Part of the problem is that despite the billions of dollars we spend on medical research and the trillions on medical care, there's overall not much strong evidence for these key questions about prevention and wellness. But then there's also the problem of the lack of humility and scientific rigor of experts who will just make a pronouncement for the sake of saying something, even when the right answer is "I don't know."
• 
  Online Eccentric Librarian

  

  More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog
  http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

  The blurb for this book is very accurate: this is a journalist, not a nutritionist or physician, who researched the topic thoroughly, laying out clearly where there wasn't or was evidence in support of theories for and against a keto/low carb diet. Because he is a journalist and not a medical professional, he didn't have a proverbial 'skin in the game' - he was free to explore and really think in a neutral fashion about the topic of diets. He also battled weight gain and was frustrated with dieting and lack of success.
  
  I appreciated the candor and also that the author did not go 'all in', looking for reasons to support a low carb/keto diet's justifications that just weren't there. It is a very thought provoking read for that reason. His conclusion throughout is that diets just don't work because we are trying to do a one-size fits all model. The keto diet might be an answer to those who have not had success in other diets - and that it might be in their own physiology that is causing the obesity.
  
  The basis of the book is trying to find why diets just don't work. I.e., it's not about eating less, cutting fats, cutting meats; it isn't just a mental health issue, a racial issue, a problem of willpower, or the other reasons that are non-food related. The evidence Taubes finds relates to each person having different resistances to insulin (caused by carbs) and so what one man can eat in excess another can have just a little and gain weight while experiencing crippling cravings. It is not surprising that most nutritionists are indeed thin but were also born that way - and therefore don't have a perspective on those whose obesity resist diets or longevity. The thin never had to fight the long battle to lose weight.
  
  This isn't a diet book and there are no recipes etc. (you can find plenty of keto recipes on the net or in bookstores). It's just the author laying out what his research has gleaned from the various medical professional and historical figures who have tries to combat or address the obesity issue.
  
  The crux of the book is to knock out carbs/sugars altogether - everything from breads, to pastas, fruits, to even beans. In doing so, the body resets, insulin isn't overloaded, and the cravings begin to wane. It is a hard ask in this modern society but the reason this can work is that it is a lifestyle change (so you can keep the weight off/stay healthy a lifetime), there is no starving, and you can enjoy the things like bacon, eggs, meats, without dealing with constant cravings.
  
  There are so many good discussions and points about other diets and also why keto/low carb isn't a fad (anyone remember the grapefruit diet?) misfire. It's also a great way to understand why so many diets are likely failing. I found a lot of the information fascinating and it was a both a reality check and a new perspective on the obesity issue. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.
• 
  Lais Martins

  I would recommend this for anyone interested in nutrition and curious about ketogenic/low carb diet. There is a lot of scientific discussion regarding the influence of carbs/sugar on our health, discussion of previous studies and the evolution of these studies over the time. Therefore, it is not an easy and fast read but it was very interesting.
  Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.
• 
  Andreas

  Thanks to Netgalley for providing a review copy.
  
  I am not sure if this book was necessary. I understand that the author has interviewed many people and he draws a convincing picture why the situation for obese people is at it is: what is causing obesity, what's not working, what a better diet should look like etc.
  
  Unlike the
  The Case Against Sugar, however, information about the Keto diet is widely available these days and it's in my opinion not necessary to dig so much in the history. Make your point and then move on. Instead all the facts are wrapped in stories and anecdotes that made it hard to extract the important pieces. This is especially true for readers who are not fat or obese. For them the Keto diet is a choice among many and the author has to do better to explain why Keto is more natural even for them.
  
  For people who want to start with Keto this is the wrong book. It explains, justifies and gets lost in politics but fails to motivate properly. I liked
  The Overfat Pandemic by Phil Maffetone much more. For people who want to learn about the scientific background it doesn't go deep enough AND it doesn't compare the Keto approach with other diets that work as well. I was also astonished that the author didn't understand why Omega-3 fats are promoted over Omega-6 (inflammation is one of the keywords).
  
  The human machinery is complex and it's all about balance. When you are have a problem with your weight then methodically find out what is not working. Going fully Keto will probably work, but it might be enough to leave aside a handful of food especially considering the way how they are produced these days and the high amount of sugar. Keto alone is not the solution anymore.
• 
  Matias Myllyrinne

  An interesting case for Keto that challenges some of the deep rooted conventional wisdom. While I’ve had my doubts the author manages to explain his case in a convincing manner. The role of insulin and impact on weight and the mechanism of how our body consumes carbs, fat, protein and alcohol are interesting and impactful. While this book will not likely convert anyone who has already decided that eating less is the only solution, it may be eye opening for those with an open mind.
  
  Worth a read for those thinking about losing weight or remaining lean.
• 
  Mike

  I'm sure ketosis is an excellent therapeutic diet, even miraculous in a sense, for the obese, diabetic, certainly epileptics, and possibly certain cancers. I do think everyone would benefit from drastically cutting sugar and eating moderately low carb (I have), but I'm not convinced that anyone without the conditions keto can help should stick with it long term until more research has been done. Taubes has a slightly combative tone with the medical establishment that I'm both sympathetic to and dislike, but that's neither here nor there really.
• 
  Donna

  This is Nonfiction/Health. This is the third book by this author that I've read. He is pro Keto. If you want to try this, this gives a lot of the science behind it. I'd recommend this to you, but if you are in the process of researching to find something that fits you, then make sure to include other books in your research...and just know that this isn't the "end all, be all" when it comes to weight loss and controlling insulin levels.
  
  The reason this is 3 stars and not 4 isn't for the writing or anything like that. It is mainly because of how I felt about this. While he laid out the Keto plan given all the new research showing how important controlling insulin levels is when it comes to being successful at losing weight. He really laid everything out so neatly.....it was tidy. I liked that. But what gets me, and I am NOT a doctor, is how he makes it sound like KETO is for everyone. I agree that KETO is certainly beneficial for some people and for some health issues, but bottom line, we are not all the same. It is not, nor will it ever be, a one way street and that is how this author makes it sound. Like everyone on the planet needs to eat like this.
  
  Lately, there has been an emphasis encouraging metabolic testing and gut health testing. This is helpful in getting to know what works best for your body. Some people process carbs better than fats, and others process fats better than carbs. You have to know your body. A close friend of mine chose KETO to lose some weight. She felt awful for the 6 months she was on it. She lost some weight but I don't think it felt worth it to her. We both did our metabolic testing and it turned out that she doesn't process fats well......at all. So she quit KETO, and followed the guidelines given to her and felt so much better and lost a lot more weight and has been able to keep it off. For success, you have to know your body. I guess what I'm trying to say, according to my experiences and those who are close to me, is that we are all different and there is no "one size fits all" approach because if there was, we'd all be doing it and we'd all be successful. So 3 stars.
• 
  Eslam Abdelghany

  
  
  كتاب لطيف ومختلف ويطرح وجهة نظر مغايرة لما تدعو إليه أنظمة الغذاء الصحي الرائجة ويدافع عن قيمة وفائدة الدهون والروتينات.
  
  يعني بإيجاز يستحق أن تلقي عليه نظرة لو مهتم، أو لو دعتك معدتك إلى ذلك.
• 
  Melissa

  This is in incredible researched book. It is full of great information, but it was too much for me, I couldn't go on more than 20%.
  
  Still, it is SUPER interesting! I just wasn't in the right mindset to read it.
  
  If you like this subject, read it. You'll love it.
  
  Many thanks to the publisher for the complimentary e-copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
• 
  Brooke Phelan

  Taubes reminds us to question the conventional. He credits the medical professionals who took a chance on Keto, with courage: “They believed the truth was obvious, which is always an impediment to making progress in any scientific endeavor.”
  
  He also helped me understand the starting points of many people who struggle with their weight. “Fat people are not lean people who eat too much.” And what it takes to see results... “We have to eat differently because we are different.”
  
  I am thankful for this honest and detailed account of the research and experiences of the LCGF/Ketogenic lifestyle. Definitely worth reading!
• 
  Matthew

  What I appreciate most about this book, a summary of much of the thinking about keto diets, is rigorously researched. Taubes is not only on top of the scientific literature, finding the fault lines in even textbooks, but interviews hundreds of experts and practitioners to find meaningful, actionable advice.
  
  Perhaps most importantly, this book provides the needed confidence to start or continue a diet (keto) that is so different from conventional nutritional advice.
  
  Highly recommend.
• 
  Alex Kogay

  Probably a good source of basic (although wrapped in a very sciency language) info to get one started on this path. However, the 2 main points are:
  1. There isn't enough scientific proof on the success or the long term consequences
  2. It fits every individual differently, so... bottom line, it just depends.
  I didn't need a whole book for that conclusion (elmo-shrug)
• 
  Brittany

  Taubes presents the 'why' to do it (and the physiologybehind it), not the 'how' to do it. I'm already a believer in keto, but this really helped solidify my conviction. He recommends compete abstinence from carbs, but does it in a gentle not fear-inducing tone; and in the end, advises to do whats best for you - that you are your own best clinical trial.
• 
  Amanda Spitzig

  For a 300 page book about a very niche way of eating, I actually really enjoyed this book and learned a lot! Based on the title, you might expect that this book is a “diet” book, but it’s really about helping the reader understand the science of how the body works, and how we can work with our bodies to strive for improved health through nutrition. It’s approachable, easy to understand, and explains why low-carb/high-fat keto eating is not a “fad” diet, but rather rooted in nutritional research.
  
  The author dissects decades of obesity research to argue that a lot of modern and historic diet and nutrition advice aimed at weight loss and heart health (i.e. eating low fat diets) has flawed origins, and doesn’t hold up. Taubes also argues that the classic weight loss advice of “burn more calories than you consume” doesn’t work for everybody, and that some bodies are more inclined to hold onto fat than others. Instead, the author unpacks a lot of fat-phobic thinking related to obesity, and explains how hormones, particularly insulin, play a huge role in the obesity epidemic, and how the consumption of sugars and starches impacts the body. This book doesn’t include any recipes or meal plans for keto eating, but does outline some of the core “rules” that guide this way of eating if you’re curious and want to try it out for yourself.
  
  I think it’s important to note that the author is not a doctor, but rather a journalist who writes primarily about topics related to medicine and nutrition. Taubes comes at the topic from a neutral perspective, has been researching and writing about keto eating for over two decades. This book is the product of interviews with 100 doctors who have been prescribing keto eating to their patients for years.
• 
  Sebastian Castillo

  Read it under your own risk. I recommend this book as a motivation source for the one with over weight specially. If you want a more scientific approach to keto and metabolism go read “ketones the 4th fuel”
  
  A nice take away from this one tho (for me) was the metabolic syndrome description. You have to watch your parents fat above the waist, blood pressure and triglycerides (so I’m getting a blood pressure device for mines)
  
  In short all the book really says and repeats is: you get fat bc of the insulin telling your fat cells to stay where they are not due to the caloric superávit. So you can have plenty of calories and lose weight every time those calories are not spiking your insulin (this is specially significant when you are getting insulin resistant which happens with time)
  
  There is no current study (RTC) that show us real implications of long term high fat vs long term high carbs food habits but there is more and more clinic evidence that shows short term benefits of controlling insulin spikes by improving the quality or restricting carbs intake. Specially in obese, diabetic, hypertensive patients.
• 
  Nicki Kendall

  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. If you read 1 book this year about how to live a healthier life and literally want to change the pathway that your current way of eating is taking you down, read this book. Gary has a way of making a low carb high fat lifestyle make so much sense without getting caught up in the "fanatical" retoric that makes some people shy away from considering this to be a lifestyle worth considering and reading more about. He explains the science and reasoning behind why lchf is the best way to eat, not only for weightloss but to put yourself into the healthiest position you can be in. He talks about the whys and how's it all works and explains things in a very simplistic manner that even the most novice of LCHF people can understand. He also delves into some of the misinformation surrounding this way of eating again whilst remaining factual. I would highly recommend this book for anyone considering a LCHF lifestyle, anyone currently following this lifestyle and even for the eye rollers/nay sayers of this lifestyle. Such an informative read #garytaubes #thecaseforketo #netgalley #lchf #keto #litsy #goodreads #theystorygraph #bookqueen #bookstagram
• 
  Erin Jones

  People who follow me on here are going to think I’m extremely unhinged for reading all the keto books!!! Which may or may not be true. Ultimately I’m trying to understand the benefits of a keto diet (no grains, starches, or sugar - high fat, low carb) as it relates to brain health mostly.
  
  This book was probably the wrong choice as it is focused mostly on using keto as an effective tool for diabetes and obesity, both of which are not currently a concern for me. But the science is still interesting!
  
  I’m still confused though because an article came out today stating that keto puts you at risk for heart disease? Ugh diet culture is exhausting.
• 
  Marie

  I've always loved Gary Taubes' books, and this one is no different. After researching his topic in-depth, he always manages to summarize the facts (and his conclusions) in a way that is easy to understand.
• 
  Jess Macallan

  4.5 stars
• 
  Mark O'mara

  As I nutrition book about Keto, based on a very firm scientific, this is a highly recommended book for the general reader and deserving of five stars. The author is journalist, who wrote the excellent and influential books “Why We Get Fat” and “The Case Against Sugar”. As a very good journalist he brings that broad research based sensibility to the ketogenic diet. A thorough and convincing rational assessment of the data and evidence around the soundness and rationality of a Ketogenic diet.