Review of Cereal Killer (Perfect Paperback)

This review offers a comparison of Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom of Diet, Weight Control, and Disease, and Alan Watson's Cereal Killer: The Unintended Consequences of the Low Fat Diet. The primary thesis of both books is that the established health advice of the last few decades--avoid fats in favor of carbohydrates--is wrong. Both cite ample evidence that we should depend on diets that are relatively higher in fats, and relatively lower in carbohydrates, especially the highly refined carbohydrates including sugars. Both single out a particular sweetener, high fructose corn syrup, for special avoidance. Both question the value of today's preoccupation with cholesterol. Both authors have spent years researching the topic, and while their positions are congruent, there are a number of interesting differences.

Gary Taubes, in Good Calories, Bad Calories, traces the historical development of the recommended low fat diet and the carbohydrate-heavy food pyramid. Rather than lambasting the process by which our nutrition advice went so awry, he dispassionately traces, in incredible depth, the medical studies, people, organizations, and events that led to this situation. In so doing, he built credibility with me. Considering the well-documented sequence of events and influences, it became convincing that the organizations we respect for guidance actually got it quite wrong. However, I found the convoluted and voluminous detail to be excruciating; the book goes 453 pages before it provides us with Taubes' well-reasoned conclusions. But, it was certainly worth the effort to read, and it provided me with new information. For example, a) weight gain or loss is not determined primarily by total calorie intake vs. calorie expenditure, or b) while the glycemic index is widely respected as an indicator of the metabolic impact of carbohydrates, fructose does not register on that scale.

I think of Alan Watson's very inviting and easy-to-read 144-page Cereal Killer as a handbook. Both authors address a gamut of health issues, but Watson centers on cardiovascular health while Taubes spends more time on weight gain and obesity. Watson's style is brief and to the point. His succinct review of fats, a complex subject, seems exceptionally understandable. Bulleted lists are presented in place of paragraphs of prose. Each chapter ends with a friendly "More to Explore..." section that provides helpful suggestions for further reading. A sprinkling of photos--of the Watson family, cows, and such--give it a pleasant and homespun quality. Cereal Killer goes beyond the narrow focus on carbohydrates vs. fats, to other related topics, such as grass-fed beef, and lard, but it left me wondering whether these topics were as well-supported by clinical studies as the fundamental carbohydrate vs. fat issue. Throughout, this book is a model of clarity and conciseness while presenting valuable information about which the author is passionate.

One of Gary Taubes' excellent New York Times articles was titled: "Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy?" I have to conclude that we may not, and that these books provide important challenges to the conventional health wisdom that can help bring us closer to that knowledge. I highly recommend reading both and keeping them within easy reach on your bookshelf.


Product Description
Cereal Killer, part 1, the test of time, documents the unintended consequences of the low fat diet, describing how food pyramid schemes and sugary cereals are directly associated with insulin resistance, high blood sugar, and widespread diabetes. Part 2, life in the fat lane, combats decades of extreme fat-bashing by providing a definitive analysis of the value and wholesome nature of saturated fat and foods rich in cholesterol.

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