Instead of commenting further on consumption and nutrition, I’ll confine my comment to a question:  is there a correlation between the growth in obesity and the use of personal computers?

I’ve come to realize that in addition to watching what I eat, and maintaining a regular running regime, I also need to be keenly aware of how I live the non-running parts of my life, in particular, how much time I spend “seated” behind a computer, both at work and at home.

Time “seated”, whether commuting, behind a computer or an entertainment device, is time not “moving”.  For me, regular movement helps to keep weight issues at bay, and is much easier than tracking calories.

Thanks! Don’t get me wrong, I thought Taubes did an excellent job in his
book. I just sometimes worry that people will come away with the message
that all carbs are evil and should never be touched. When it comes to diet,
people are far to likely to take things to an extreme and then fail
miserably because the diet they pursue is not sustainable for them. The
biggest thing that GCBC did for me is remove my fear of eating fat. I’d take
a steak over a bag of chips any day! It has also led me to be much more
conscious of my carb intake, though I do still have my weak moments…

Some of us are not naturally thin on the Western diet/lifestyle, and the only way we can maintain thinness and marathon times around 3 hours is by a little obsessive-compulsive behavior. I have friends that are naturally thin, even on the Western diet. They don’t get hungry. Not like me. I imagine you’re one of those turds. Good for you. Speak for yourself.

Yes, and I agree with Pollan when he says in In Defense of Food that Taubes
is guilty of the same level of nutritional demonization that he criticizes
in the low fat movement. Carbs are not evil, but a diet composed
overwhelmingly of processed carbs is really pretty awful. Personally, I no
longer pay much attention to the fat content of my food, nor do I avoid
carbs above all else. In an ideal world, Pollan’s approach appeals to me the
most – eat reasonable amounts of mostly whole foods and avoid heavily
processed garbage. Paleo has a lot that intrigues me as an evolutionary
biologist, but since we’ll never know for sure exactly what our ancestors
ate, it can easily be taken to far.

Keep the articles coming Pete, you are an inspiration to many.
P.S. You were right about the Kinvaras, what an awesome shoe.

If you read GCBC, Why We Get Fat would just be a simplified recap. You can probably skip it.

Like Born to Run, one can only be inspired to go run after reading this.  I know people like you, except for one thing: they run to lose weight, but then they walk in the door and ‘treat’ themselves to a large post run snack.  They check the scales, but a pound never drops.  Looks like you did it the right way.

Yes, exercise needs to be viewed as an essential part of the day. Our
ancestors didn’t spend their days on the couch watching television!

But thats not the problem for me… Its the growing burdon of obesity related disease on the public purse… a purse that i am obliged to keep filling.

In Hungry on september 1st they introduced a new tax on ‘snack foods’, for me thats at least a step in the right direction. If you want to eat yourself into an oblivion of obesity then currently thats your right, but then you should at least be contributing more to the coffers that are going to have to pay for your medical bills.

Even if you don’t count calories on a daily basis, I think just being
calorie aware is huge. Portion control is usually all that it takes to get
my weight under control, and finishing my kids’ meals is one f the first
thing I need to remind myself to stop doing. I find it so hard to throw away
good food…