Great article on dietary fats. The second big unintended consequence of our shift away from animal fats is that were now consuming more vegetable oils. Butter and lard had long been staples of the American pantry until Crisco, introduced in 1911, became the first vegetable-based fat to win wide acceptance in U.S. kitchens. Then came margarines made from vegetable oil and then just plain vegetable oil in bottles. In short, the track record of vegetable oils is highly worrisome—and not remotely what Americans bargained for when they gave up butter and lard. Saturated fat does not cause heart disease—or so concluded a big study published in March in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. How could this be? The very cornerstone of dietary advice for generations has been that the saturated fats in butter, cheese and red meat should be avoided because they clog our arteries. For many diet-conscious Americans, it is simply second nature to opt for chicken over sirloin, canola oil over butter. The new studys conclusion shouldnt surprise anyone familiar with modern nutritional science, however. The fact is, there has never been solid evidence for the idea that these fats cause disease. We only believe this to be the case because nutrition policy has been derailed over the past half-century by a mixture of personal ambition, bad science, politics and bias. Critics have pointed out that Dr. Keys violated several basic scientific norms in his study. But there was no turning back: Too much institutional energy and research money had already been spent trying to prove Dr. Keyss hypothesis. A bias in its favor had grown so strong that the idea just started to seem like common sense. As Harvard nutrition professor Mark Hegsted said in 1977, after successfully persuading the U.S. Senate to recommend Dr. Keyss diet for the entire nation, the question wasnt whether Americans should change their diets, but why not? Important benefits could be expected, he argued. And the risks? None can be identified, he said. In fact, even back then, other scientists were warning about the diets potential unintended consequences. Today, we are dealing with the reality that these have come to pass. Our half-century effort to cut back on the consumption of meat, eggs and whole-fat dairy has a tragic quality. More than a billion dollars have been spent trying to prove Ancel Keyss hypothesis, but evidence of its benefits has never been produced. It is time to put the saturated-fat hypothesis to bed and to move on to test other possible culprits for our nations health woes.
Posted on: Fri, 09 May 2014 15:20:34 +0000
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