Dietary Advice That Caused a Catastrophe

It is becoming more acceptable to question dietary advice. Low fat is slowly losing support because of the obesity epidemic and as people are trying to solve this, they are also questioning other dietary advice.

Yes, there are still those that believe in low fat, but as others continue to consume medium to higher fat, now they are labeling meat as the culprit of heart disease. The majority of knowledgeable people are ignoring the change and are actually lowing the amount of carbohydrates they are consuming. Some are eating low carb/high fat and others are eating varying percentages of the three macronutrients.

Sensible people take no notice of expert advice about what they should or should not eat, secure in the knowledge that the latest fad will eventually be shown to be false. There is, however, one group for whom that advice, first promulgated exactly 35 years ago, has proved disastrous. Maturity onset (or Type 2) diabetes is, as all know, a condition of carbohydrate intolerance where either the pancreas produces insufficient insulin for the body’s needs, or the tissues are resistant to its action. Either way, the body’s metabolism can no longer utilize the sugars in carbohydrate-based foods, the levels of glucose in the blood rise and the unused energy laid down as fat.

Thus, historically, those with Type 2 were advised to restrict the amount of bread, pasta, potatoes etc consumed in favor of meat and dairy products. This dietary regime combined with weight loss was often sufficient to restore their blood sugar levels to normal. Then, back in 1982, an alliance of influential nutritionists and epidemiologists reversed this logical advice on the grounds that meat and dairy products contain wicked saturated fats that push up the cholesterol, causing tens of thousands of premature deaths from a heart attack.

It is the shame of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services that they promoted the dietary fads of a few and grew the obesity epidemic and the fast increase of type 2 diabetes.

The above is the cause of the dietary catastrophe of the last three decades. Hopefully, the next few years will start to show that people are ignoring the dietary advice of the two departments promoting the poor dietary advice and people will be eating more real foods and slowly pushing highly processed foods out of the grocery stores.