Wow, it's amazing the heat that diet generates as a topic. It's like religion.
For what it's worth, although I think Taubes' ten points contain many important nuggets of scientific truth (with the key essentials related to carbohydrate intake being the primary source of becoming or remaining fat and the relation to diabetes - its not the fat in your diet making you fat or keeping you fat, its the carbs). Some of those points will no doubt be wrong, some will be a little off, and some will be need to be more nuanced to be correct. That's how science evolves. Just like some elements of TGM orthodoxy turn out not to apply or to describe reality although certain other basic principles. But the key point is that the generally accepted wisdom about diet will not work for many people to allow them to lose a large amount of weight and improve their health because the general wisdom is severely flawed. The chances of losing 50 lbs following the food pyramid and the generally accepted wisdom ("a few less calories, a little more activity) are roughly the same chance that someone who is an 18-handicapper has to become a scratch golfer by reading Golf Digest tips.
I do think one of the primary weaknesses of Taubes' book have been zeroed in on by several here and relates to his pronouncements related more to exercise, which the book only touches on very briefly and very superficially, in my opinion. If you are going to do serious, long-term aerobic exercise over several hours and think you can do it without consuming more carbs, you are wrong. The Zone, which also is very Taubes like in its underlying view of carbohydrate effect, gives you an idea of the amount of carbs you have to consume to do prolonged aerobic exercise. For that very rare person doing high-level activity, the amount of extra carbs you have to take in to sustain high level effort over a prolonged period is very large. I have a friend training for the amateur stage of the Tour de France (L'Etape) this summer who works with a Carmichael systems trainer (same group Lance armstrong used), and he has learned he has to take in 90 grams of carbs an hour in order to sustain his long training rides of 3-4 hours. But the average person riding around in their car who drinks Gatorade because Lance or Tiger does is seriously deluded.
There is even an effect with respect to very moderate activity/exercise. Even for someone like myself just going out in winter, trying to walk 18 holes in the cold, I learned several months ago that I could barely finish 18 holes without feeling sick without having a small additional amount (20-30 grams) of carbohydrates.
But if you have been overweight for a long time, and what you have been trying doesn't work, try something else. Pay attention to people who have had some success. "More willpower" in applying a scientifically flawed model will not yield better results.
