Not the pilot episode, but the feature film that introduced the concept, the sub, and most of the major characters who would later appear in the TV series.

Interestingly, the film appeared in 1961, which was before the test cited in TFA. And more interesting still, the "fix" in the film was exploding a nuclear device (launched on a missile from the Seaview) to "blow out" the fire in the belts. I'm guessing that there had been some discussion of the test in years prior, and Irwin Allen spun a script around it.

I was only nine at the time, but I remember thinking that the whole concept of the Van Allen belts "catching fire" was absurd because I knew that the belts were outside the atmosphere, and fire requires oxygen. It was the first time I can recall thinking that the science in SF movies was BS. It wasn't the last.

Taubes does not present a diet in his book. He presents a fairly measured discussion of the science and the history that bear on the whole issue of what a healthy diet actually is, right down to a very good layman's explanation of the metabolism of the various chemical components of food. I lost the weight in question before I ever heard of his book. The book was valuable because it explained why I lost that weight.

Good Calories, Bad Calories contains 118 pages of citations and bibliography from peer-reviewed journals and medical researchers in all parts of the medical science field, including (but not limited to) nutritionists. Even if I were a nutritionist, in the face of such a wall of references, I'd be hard pressed to call him a "quack."

Please read the book Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes, for the backstory on the carb wars, as well as abundant research citations about the hazards of eating what I call "habitual carbs." I stopped eating carbs (sugar particularly) and lost 20 pounds, while feeling more energetic and alert than I have in some time. This effect may be age-related (I'm in my mid-50s) and certainly sensitive to individual genetic differences, but the science is not settled (hey, I'm a carb denier!) and the forces that bear on the issue are a lot more complex than most people think.