So, the challenge, of course, is that there isn't really any correct answers here. Basically, the deeper you go, the more complex you realize things are. A great science writer like Taubes can write an very respectable and carefully footnoted tome (Good Calories, Bad Calories) describing how dangerous carbs are, but then people can come up with counter-examples of asians who have a predominantly white rice diet who live a long, lean, and healthy life. So then he pivots a little, and now it's _refined_ carbohydrates, in particular the sugars and refined flours that are so common in western diets.

It's a little like summarizing "What is the best way to program" - there isn't any one way. A Sr. Developer has lifetime's experience of tools, languages, methodologies, design patterns, and passion that allows them to make a decision on how to approach a problem given a broad pool of knowledge.

Likewise a Dietitian has a whole host of experience, knowledge, tools, and approaches that may be appropriate for different circumstances. Bodybuilders eat plenty of carbohydrates in their off season to bulk up and put on muscle, switch to low-carb to drop fat as they cut, until they get close to their show date, at which point they start adding carbs back to their diet to gain muscle pump. Same person, same profession, same macro-nutrient - different approach.

It's really about understanding the multitudes of mechanisms than it is about any unified interpretation. As much as I love reading Gary Taubes work (and I do!) - I think he has a tendency to make things a little more simple than they really are.

Sorry, no silver bullet. :-)