Chapter 11 asks if we have ever reviewed the U-turn that we did (I have yet to meet more than a couple of people who even know that we did a U-turn.) I wrote to the UK Food Standards Agency in 2009 and asked why they tell people to avoid fat and to eat carbohydrate and you may find this as interesting (or scary) as Chapter 7. They present one study as the sum total of evidence for telling people to avoid fat. They repeat the admission that the study to prove fat guilty of anything has never been done (still never been done – in 2009 – 25 years after the admission in 1984 that it had never been done). They also confirm that we tell people to eat carbs only because they’ve got to eat something – not because we ever tested whether or not this unprecedented level of carbohydrate consumption would be safe for humans.
Chapter 11 concludes as follows:
“There are three facts that I can state without any fear of being proven wrong:
1) It has not been proven that saturated fat consumption causes heart disease;
2) It has not even been proven that there is a consistent association between saturated fat consumption and heart disease;
3) The definitive study to try to prove this has not been done and likely never will be.”
I guess you didn’t know that.
OMG! At the age of 54 I’ve been ‘dieting’ for over 30 years and all that has happened is that I’ve got bigger and bigger. Looking at the ‘science’ I’ve been using as the basis for my efforts it’s no wonder. I’m horrified and delighted at the same time. There is, after all, hope.
Hi Julie – it is frightening isn’t it? I do think that people will be able to sue the government and public health diet advisors one day and say “you made me fat”. I have no doubt that our U-Turn in dietary advice has caused this horrific obesity epidemic and we simply refuse to reconsider that maybe we should return to what we used to know to be true: “Farinaceous and vegetable foods are fattening, and saccharine matters are especially so” (Tanner 1869)
Best wishes – Zoe