Month: November 2007

The author of Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious (as quoted in Newsweek) argues that we make the best decisions by using one good reason instead of weighing all the pros and cons:

In every case, one good reason has proven superior to data-greedy mathematical equations in making the best choices.

The example he gave was a parent whose child wakes up wheezing in the middle of the night.  One doctor they know can come to the house in 20 minutes but he’s not a good listener or they can drive 60 minutes to an unknown doctor who’s known to be a good listener.  Although there are four pieces of information, most parents make their decision based on one piece of information: whether or not the doctor is a good listener.  The author argues that the gut feel decision based one piece of information is better than the decision that could have been made by weighing all four.

The New York Times just came out with their 100 Notable Books of 2007.  (Online a week before it will show up in print!)  Since I haven’t read any of them and I’ve read a lot of good books this year, I will conclude that there are a lot, I mean really a lot, of good books out there!

If you have ever tried to lose weight or just eat healthy, you must read this book, Good Calories, Bad Calories.  This book changed my thinking about food, health, nutrition and exercise.  I didn’t realize how much of what doctors said that I just believed.  I didn’t realize that what they recommend is based on little proven evidence.  Or how much contradictory evidence is just ignored. 

This isn’t a diet book.  It’s a book about the history of nutritional advice.  Our understanding of food and obesity, how it’s come about and how it’s changed over the past century.  I’ll be writing more in future posts but here’s what I’ve definitely taken away:

1. A calorie is not a calorie.  A lot of other factors matter like what kind of calorie, what kind of person, metabolism, exercise, external environmental factors, …
2. Calories in does not always equal calories out.  Or we are not measuring all the calories in and out correctly.
3. Dietary fat does not make you fat.  Fat is not necessarily better or worse than protein or carbs.  It’s not necessarily equal either!
4. Many of our current doctors are 100% convinced of what they know and not really willing to consider radical shifts in thinking.   Like they continue to recommend  eating less calories and exercising to lose weight when it’s obviously not working for many people.  (Do you really lack the will power?)

More to come, but I definitely recommend Good Calories, Bad Calories.  You can read a good excerpt written by the author, Gary Taubes, on ABC News.

Electronic books, books that you can read on your computer, phone or other electronic device, have been around for a while but they haven’t really taken off.  (I read quite a few when I had a PocketPC.)  Amazon’s new device, the Kindle, is trying to change that.  They spent a lot of effort making sure their reader resembles a paperback book in size and weight plus they added features that other electronic readers don’t have.  On the Kindle, you’ll have wireless access to the entire library of Amazon books.  You’ll be able to search for books and download them on the fly.  You’ll also be able to read blogs and use Google to some extent.

I can’t wait to see one!  Although at $399, I might not buy one right away …

Update: The Kindle just came out!