Taubes has been presenting evidence to other researchers. But the medical establishment takes a loooooong time to change its collective mind on stuff like this.

Taubes has been presenting evidence to other researchers. But the medical establishment takes a loooooong time to change its collective mind on stuff like this. Here's a relevant video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4362041487661765149 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4362041487661765149 In that video, I think Taubes actually refutes the "law of thermodynamics" approach to losing weight in a single picture, with an existence proof. There exist people who are emaciated in half their body (say, the top half) and obese in the other half (say, the bottom). According to the "law of thermodynamics" approach, such a person should simultaneously "eat less, move more" (to cure their bottom half) and "eat more, move less" (to cure their top). This is clearly impossible advice to follow. These people need some other form of advice. Once we figure out what that advice should be, it's probably going to be of benefit to people who are fat or emaciated over their entire body rather than a selected part. As for your analogy: I'm an atheist, but if any Christian that others saw as "refuting" evolution had as much social proof as Taubes - had huge communities of my peers recommending his work - I'd kind of be inclined to check it out and see what he had to say.