Why We Get Fat

We get fat when we take in more energy than we expend (a positive energy balance, in the scientific terminology), and we get lean when we expend more than we take in (a negative energy balance). Food is energy, and we measure that energy in the form of calories. So, if we take in more calories than we expend, we get fatter. If we take in fewer calories, we get leaner.

Obesity and overweight, so we’ll be told, are associated with an increased risk of virtually every chronic disease that ails us—heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, dementia, asthma.

If you accept my arguments as valid and change your diet accordingly, you may be going against your doctor’s advice, and certainly that of the health organizations and government agencies that dictate the consensus opinion on what constitutes a healthy diet.

The fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be. This is clear.

Eat as much as you like of meat, fish, fowl, eggs, and leafy green vegetables. Avoid starches, grains, and sugars and anything made from them (including bread, sweets, juices, sodas), and learn for yourself whether and how much fruit and non-starchy vegetables (such as peas, artichokes, and cucumbers) your body can tolerate.

. A diet that prohibits sugars, flour, potatoes, and beer, but allows unlimited meat, eggs, and leafy green vegetables, leaves in all the essential nutrients, as the British nutritionist John Yudkin argued in the 1960s and 1970s, and may even increase them, since you can eat more of these particular foods