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Usage Notes

• Carbohydrate is in percentage by food weight (calculated according to the general rules of a successful reducing diet as described in Taubes's Good Calories, Bad Calories, p. 314). Calories are calculated per 100g of food.
• This Good Calories Bad Calories food database contains approximately 7,000 most common food items.
• Click on column header to sort foods by name, by carb percentage, or calories.
• Pie chart shows relative contributions to total calories from carbohydrate, protein and fat (and alcohol, if exists).

Gary Taubes Good Calories Bad Calories Diet

Now that you've finished reading the impressive 600-page treatise on diet by Gary Taubes, how are you going to apply the principles you've gleaned from this massive work? You've come to the right place.
This website provides a convenient searchable and sortable food database for you to select the optimal foods according to the reducing diet principles described in Gary Taubes's Good Calories Bad Calories.
In one sentence, Gary Taubes argues that the best diet is one loaded with protein and fat but very low in carbohydrate. In other words, calories from protein and fat are good and calories from carb are bad.

The Key Principles of Reducing Diets Described in Taubes's Good Calories, Bad Calories

• Do not eat sugar, honey, jam, candy or syrup.
• Do not eat fruits canned with sugar.
• Do not eat cake, cookies, pie, ice cream.
• Do not drink sugared soft drinks such as Coke, ginger ale, root beer.
• In summary, diet should minimize high carb content foods such as rice, bread, potato, macaroni, pies, cakes, sweet desserts, sugar, candy, cream, etc.
• The plant foods allowed in the reducing diets are determined by their carbohydrate content. For example, potatoes are almost 20% carb by weight so the potatoes are known as 20-percent vegetables. Green peas and artichokes are 15-percent vegetables, and so on.
  Lettuce, cucumbers, spinach are mostly water and have even lower carb percentage by weight.
  You can easily see the carb-percent values of all foods in our database above. Foods can be searched by name or browse by category. Especially useful is the ability to sort foods by carb-percentage. This makes choosing optimal foods for Good Calories Bad Calories diet particularly simple.

We also have an online database to use in conjunction with Gary Taubes's Why We Get Fat and What to Do about It.

The 100 Bad-Calorie Foods

Based on Good Calories, Bad Calories principles, the 100 foods below are the worst: highest in carb and in sugar contents. Carb and sugar are in grams per 100 grams of food weight.

High-Carb High-Sugar Foods

Carb

Sugar

Sweeteners, tabletop, fructose, dry, powder

100.0

92.7

Sugars, granulated

100.0

99.8

Sugar, turbinado

99.8

99.2

Sugars, powdered

99.8

97.8

Strawberry-flavor beverage mix, powder

99.1

95.5

Orange-flavor drink, breakfast type, powder

98.9

92.3

Candies, hard, dietetic or low calorie (sorbitol)

98.6

93.0

Tea, instant, sweetened with sugar, lemon-flavored, without added ascorbic acid, powder

98.6

95.3

Tea, instant, sweetened with sugar, lemon-flavored, without added ascorbic acid,

98.6

95.3

powder, decaffeinated

Sugars, brown

98.1

97.0

Candies, hard

98.0

62.9

Lemonade-flavor drink, powder

97.6

97.2

Whiskey sour mix, powder

97.3

97.3

Lemonade, powder

97.2

94.7

Chewing gum

96.7

66.1

Puddings, tapioca, dry mix

94.3

65.0

Drink mix, QUAKER OATS, GATORADE, orange flavor, powder

94.1

80.5

Candies, jellybeans

93.6

70.0

Apples, dehydrated (low moisture), sulfured, uncooked

93.5

81.1

Puddings, vanilla, dry mix, regular

93.5

79.3

Candies, fondant, prepared-from-recipe

93.2

88.9

Puddings, banana, dry mix, regular

93.0

74.3

Puddings, vanilla, dry mix, instant

92.9

92.9

Puddings, banana, dry mix, instant

92.7

76.6

Candies, nougat, with almonds

92.4

83.3

Candies, taffy, prepared-from-recipe

91.6

68.5

Sweeteners, tabletop, sucralose, SPLENDA packets

91.2

80.3

Candies, MARS SNACKFOOD US, SKITTLES Sours Original

91.0

73.2

High-Carb High-Sugar Foods

Carb

Sugar

Sugars, maple

90.9

84.9

Chocolate-flavor beverage mix for milk, powder, without added nutrients

90.9

83.9

Candies, MARS SNACKFOOD US, SKITTLES Original Bite Size Candies

90.8

75.8

Candies, MARS SNACKFOOD US, SKITTLES Tropical Bite Size Candies

90.8

75.8

Candies, MARS SNACKFOOD US, SKITTLES Wild Berry Bite Size Candies

90.8

75.9

Gelatin desserts, dry mix

90.5

86.0

Candies, butterscotch

90.4

80.5

Chocolate-flavor beverage mix for milk, powder, with added nutrients

90.3

81.8

Popcorn, sugar syrup/caramel, fat-free

90.1

64.7

Sweeteners, tabletop, saccharin

89.1

85.2

Sweeteners, tabletop, aspartame, EQUAL, packets

89.1

80.7

Candies, divinity, prepared-from-recipe

89.1

79.0

Candies, gum drops, dietetic or low calorie (sorbitol)

88.0

70.0

Puddings, chocolate, dry mix, instant

87.9

67.9

Malted drink mix, chocolate, powder

86.9

66.7

Snacks, candy bits, yogurt covered with vitamin C

86.9

65.0

McDONALD'S, Honey

86.4

74.3

Coffee, instant, with sugar, cappuccino-flavor powder

85.9

69.2

Malted drink mix, chocolate, with added nutrients, powder

84.6

70.6

Cocoa mix, powder

83.7

65.6

Frostings, glaze, prepared-from-recipe

83.7

80.4

Malted drink mix, natural, with added nutrients, powder

83.6

63.4

Puddings, coconut cream, dry mix, instant

83.5

64.0

Candied fruit

82.7

80.7

Honey

82.4

82.1

Cranberries, dried, sweetened

82.4

65.0

Candies, fudge, vanilla, prepared-from-recipe

82.2

79.8

Puddings, coconut cream, dry mix, regular

81.8

80.5

Candies, YORK BITES

81.6

75.0

Candies, YORK Peppermint Pattie

81.0

63.8

Candies, sweet chocolate coated fondant

80.4

71.4

Our Sugar-Related Nutrient Databases

Individual sugars: Fructose, galactose, glucose, lactose, maltose, sucrose.
Multiple sugars: Fructose, glucose and sucrose.
UK Nutrient Databank: Glucose, galactose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, lactose and total sugars in foods commonly available in the UK.

High-Carb High-Sugar Foods

Carb

Sugar

Candies, NESTLE, AFTER EIGHT Mints

79.5

66.6

Candies, MARS SNACKFOOD US, 3 MUSKETEERS Bar

77.8

66.9

Candies, fudge, peanut butter, prepared-from-recipe

77.8

73.4

Baking chocolate, mexican, squares

77.4

69.4

Candies, caramels

77.0

65.5

Gerber graduates Fruit Strips Real Fruit Bars

76.6

68.7

Candies, fudge, chocolate, prepared-from-recipe

76.4

73.1

Sweeteners, tabletop, fructose, liquid

76.1

76.0

Candies, MARS SNACKFOOD US, POP'ABLES 3 MUSKETEERS Brand Bite Size Candies

75.9

67.0

Dates, deglet noor

75.0

63.4

Cocoa mix, NESTLE, Hot Cocoa Mix Rich Chocolate With Marshmallows

75.0

65.0

Dates, medjool

75.0

66.5

Syrups, sorghum

74.9

74.9

Candies, fudge, vanilla with nuts

74.6

71.0

Whey, sweet, dried

74.5

74.5

Currants, zante, dried

74.1

67.3

Whey, acid, dried

73.5

73.5

Cream substitute, powdered, light

73.4

73.4

Cookies, coconut macaroons, prepared from recipe

72.2

70.7

Frostings, glaze, chocolate, prepared-from-recipe, with butter, NFSMI Recipe No. C-32

72.2

64.3

Candies, MARS SNACKFOOD US, POP'ABLES MILKY WAY Brand Bite Size Candies

71.9

61.1

Candies, fudge, chocolate marshmallow, prepared-from-recipe

71.3

64.1

Syrups, malt

71.3

71.3

Candies, MARS SNACKFOOD US, M&M's Milk Chocolate Candies

71.2

63.7

Litchis, dried

70.7

66.1

Pears, dried, sulfured, uncooked

69.7

62.2

Syrups, table blends, cane and 15% maple

69.5

68.2

Candies, MARS SNACKFOOD US, M&M's MINIs Milk Chocolate Candies

68.4

62.5

Baking chocolate, MARS SNACKFOOD US, M&M's Milk Chocolate Mini Baking Bits

68.4

62.5

Candies, milk chocolate coated raisins

68.4

62.2

Candies, sugar-coated almonds

68.3

62.5

High-Carb High-Sugar Foods

Carb

Sugar

Candies, ROLO Caramels in Milk Chocolate

68.0

63.9

Candies, fudge, chocolate, with nuts, prepared-from-recipe

67.9

63.4

Frostings, vanilla, creamy, ready-to-eat

67.9

63.1

Frostings, cream cheese-flavor, ready-to-eat

67.3

63.5

Candies, confectioner's coating, butterscotch

67.1

67.1

Syrups, maple

67.0

60.4

Beverage, instant breakfast powder, chocolate, not reconstituted

66.2

65.8

Cookies, chocolate sandwich, with creme filling, regular, chocolate-coated

66.1

63.4

Candies, toffee, prepared-from-recipe

64.7

63.5

Candies, confectioner's coating, yogurt

63.9

62.4

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