Why We Get Fat Author Launches Initiative to Investigate New Research on Obesity

Science Writer Gary Taubes, who authored Why We Get Fat, writes in Nature
magazine that obesity is not a matter of energy in-energy out, but is rather
a “hormonal, regulatory defect.” In his December 13, 2012, article titled
“Treat obesity as physiology, not physics,” Taubes bases this conclusion on
endocrinology and calls for better research into hormonal theories about why
we get fat. To that end, he has co-founded the Nutrition Science Initiative,
a nonprofit organization “dedicated to reducing the economic and social
burden of obesity and obesity-related chronic disease by improving the
quality of science in nutrition and obesity research.”

Among other matters, the initiative will “fund and facilitate the trials
necessary to rigorously test the competing hypotheses, beginning with
inpatient feeding studies that will rigorously control dietary interventions for
participants so that we know unambiguously the effects of macronutrients—
protein, fat and carbohydrates—on weight and body fat.” Taubes suggests
that it is the “quantity and quality of carbohydrates consumed” that has
contributed to the obesity epidemic, not simply excess calories.