Muffin Tops and Cookie Bellies.

It's not an easy read. In fact, it made us take a hard look at our favorite mid-morning snack...  <insert any delicious baked good from Cibo here>, despite spending plenty of hours on the bike per week.

Author Gary Taubes' concept, however, is very basic: 

Simple carbohydrates are driving America's obesity epidemic. 

Eating and drinking refined carbohydrates increases insulin production, which is a hormone that encourages energy storage (yes... by "storage," we actually mean fat).   Unfortunately, that makes little of the food's energy available to the body to power it through what's next in its day.  Your body recognizes that it's running low, and hits the "I'm hungry" trigger once again - restarting the cycle and perpetuating "storage" in the average sedentary American.  

If you're thinking about cleaning up your diet this summer or jumping on yet another juice cleanse, we recommended starting here first. Thank you, Gary Taubes for an eye-opening read. He sums it up below in a very cool flow chart....