Old Horse Story "Brain Needs 100g of Carbohydrates for Health"

Following Taubes, I looked for the document "Dietary Reference Intakes"
compiled by the Institute of Medicine (2002) edition. In this government
report are said to be statements that the brain will run just fine
without anycarbohydrates (provided adequate proteins and fats are supplied),

What I was able to find without very much searching was the following:
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Begin On Page 275 of
Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty
Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids (Macronutrients) (2005)
Food and Nutrition Board (FNB)

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?reco...10490&page=275


Clinical Effects of Inadequate Intake [of Carbohydrates]

The lower limit of dietary carbohydrate compatible with life apparently
is zero, provided that adequate amounts of protein and fat are consumed.
However, the amount of dietary carbohydrate that provides for optimal
health in humans is unknown. There are traditional populations that
ingested a high fat, high protein diet containing only a minimal amount
of carbohydrate for extended periods of time (Masai), and in some cases
for a lifetime after infancy (Alaska and Greenland Natives, Inuits, and
Pampas indigenous people) (Du Bois, 1928; Heinbecker, 1928). There was
no apparent effect on health or longevity. Caucasians eating an
essentially carbohydrate-free diet, resembling that of Greenland
natives, for a year tolerated the diet quite well (Du Bois, 1928).
However, a detailed modern comparison with populations ingesting the
majority of food energy as carbohydrate has never been done.

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This document contains the same information that Taubes referenced in
his book "Good Carbs, Bad Carbs" on page 456.

This document goes on with a rather extensive discussion on ketones and
stuff of that nature which explicitly describe how these alternative
energy sources provide needed brain energy. Some people interested in
the details may find thes interesting.

But, evidently, when someone tells you this old horse story about the
brain needing 100 grams of carbohydrates, you can be assured that this
is bodily excretion from the posterior of a horse.