Gary Taubes had a problem on his hands for his "Alternate Hypothesis" on the cause of obesity. While Why We Get Fat was in the writing stage, a couple of NIH biophysicists remained pesky thorns in Gary's side having challenged him on a lynch-pin of TWICHOO (Taubes Wrong Insulin-Carbohydrate Hypothesis Of Obesity). Not to mention an equally pesky then-anonymous bunny-eared blogger who posted some pretty damning stuff on the subject, especially when she looked at his seminal reference on the subject from GCBC. Downplay as he might, try to move on and have everyone forget, as he eventually relented and did, Taubes' original WWGF remains enshrined in the first journalistic effort on the topic: Good Calories Bad Calories.
It wasn't all that long ago that people were shouted down in forums and comment sections of the low carb persuasion for daring to suggest that people could gain weight on low carb. Remember the meme? At least you won't gain weight being a fat glutton? Can't gain weight so long as there's no carb around? It was all there in black and white in GCBC-- you need glucose to make alpha glycerol phosphate (aka glycerol-3-phosphate) to store fat.
