Gary Taubes Makes the Case for KETO

True Health Revealed

In this episode of True Health Revealed, we interviewed nationally renowned low carb advocate and author of the 2020 book “The Case for Keto,” Gary Taubes.

Gary is known for being a passionate advocate for low carb approaches to nutrition, and by so doing, improving insulin sensitivity. From the perspective of many on “my side” (believers in plant rich eating patterns inclusive of legumes, whole fruits and whole grains), Gary is often thought of as someone that has an almost zero tolerance for all (even 100% whole) grains, root/tuberous (a.k.a. “starchy”) vegetables, legumes and most fruits that we consider strongly associated with vitality and longevity.

Yet we had a very comfortable discussion reverting back and forth from personal experiences (including his addiction to smoking and my binge eating disorder) to discussing randomized controlled trials of nutrition (including the renowned DIETFITS trial of healthy low-carb versus healthy low-fat diets, led by Christopher Gardner at Stanford). I found Gary not to be “scary.”

To me, our discussion revealed a humble, at times charmingly self-deprecating man who is, dare I say, flexible (e.g., pointing out correctly that the maintenance phase of Atkins diet phases has many similarities with plant predominant Flexitarian eating though most only focus on Atkins initial, ketosis inducing “induction phase”).

He is also curious (for instance, about the nothing-but-meat “carnivore diet,” about which he’s curious more than anything). I heard no outright denial of the fact that a plant rich, flexitarian or even vegan approach (keeping in mind his wife, he makes clear, is close to plant pure) wasn’t appropriate and healthy for many.

But he absolutely made clear his belief that controlling insulin via a low carb approach and titrating (adjusting) carbohydrate was key from his perspective to managing insulin resistance and weight control. Now, I don’t fully agree with that, obviously. Yet I saw no reason not to look at the mass majority of where we agreed… And yes, we could meet and “break bread” (minus the bread of course) over a fresh bed of vegetables and sustainable fish. In the spirit of the words he wrote to me in a personally signed copy of his newest book, “Here’s to Switzerland…!”

Some of Gary’s summary points

• Colorful low starch vegetables are healthy! He never ate more before going low carb.

• Low-carb/keto is for metabolic correction in the insulin resistant and certainly is compatible with transitioning to a Flexitarian type eating pattern. But if weight gain/insulin resistance recurs…titrate back on carbohydrate, especially CRRAHP™ (calorie rich, refined and highly processed) carbs, but also whole grains, legumes, starch based vegetables and most whole fruits.

• Foods containing CRRAHP™ carbs add addictive qualities and many people, though not necessarily all, may need to consider them like an addictive drug to be “dosed” carefully and with honest personal admission to susceptibility for drug like dependency.

• Gary’s approach to low-carb and ketogenic diets is about personal experimentation and finding what works best to achieve metabolic health, unlike caricatures of him as someone who believes in absolutism.

• Healthy populations such as Blue Zones and the Bolivian Tsimané tribes are different from westernized populations, particularly the United States with our insulin resistance and obesity epidemics. This is particularly in the sense that traditional (e.g., Blue Zones) and forager-horticulturalist based (for example, Tsimané) populations have never experienced the metabolic disruptions that drive our obesity epidemic, nor the epigenetic pressures that come from such, including those that occur in utero (e.g., upon unborn children to mothers who are insulin resistant). So while their eating patterns of high intakes of the legumes, root vegetables, whole grains, whole fruits and vegetables is quite justified considering the difference in their current and historical metabolic health (including lots of natural movement), the US population, which has been “raised” on the CRRAHP-SAD (SAD = Standard American Diet) is a different animal (no pun).

• Social support is critical for any substantial transformational lifestyle change based on food behaviors, particularly in the inner circle of our lives such as life partners/spouses, is very important and otherwise makes any eating pattern that would be different than the CRRAHP saturated SAD (Standard American Diet) a struggle of a potentially insurmountable nature.

• Gary is as human as anyone else when it comes to binge tendencies (like Dr. Rifai), and isn’t averse to the occasional slice of pizza or a dessert, although he probably fights the urges more so than most of us.