Why you think fat is bad- a brief history lesson
I grew up in the 90’s when low-fat everything was the craze; margarine, egg whites, skim milk, and fat-free salad dressings were ubiquitous in our fridges.
The push for low or fat-free food had been going on for decades, but despite this shift, people were actually getting fatter and the prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease was skyrocketing. What was happening?
Here’s the quick rundown of what you may not know.
In the mid 1900’s a charismatic American scientist named Ancel Keys produced research suggesting that diets high in saturated fat and cholesterol led to heart disease.
Although it was unknown at the time, Keys actually cherrypicked his observational data to make his hypothesis seem stronger than it was. His outspoken and intimidating demeanor helped him get the ears of government officials who were tasked with making dietary guidelines. This was a critical step towards the the government’s low-fat recommendation.
Around the same time that these dietary guidelines were being made, Richard Nixon was running for President. In an attempt to secure votes, he promised to dramatically expand the farm subsidies program. As a result of his election, taxpayer dollars enabled farmers produce a ton of corn and wheat- foods high in carbohydrates. This led to an abundant source of cheap, high carbohydrate food available to the public.
While everything above was happening, researchers in Japan figured out how to extract high fructose corn syrup from corn. This sweetener was 1.5x sweeter than real sugar and significantly cheaper to produce. Jackpot!
Finally in 1960’s, the Sugar Research Foundation paid three Harvard scientists the equivalent of $50,000 in today’s dollars to publish a review of sugar, fat, and heart disease. These studies were hand-picked by the sugar industry to downplay the role sugar had in heart disease and unfortunately this type of thing is still happening to this day. Coca Cola has paid millions of dollars to researchers to downplay the link between sugary drinks and obesity.
So at roughly the same time, we had four big things happen:
The scientific community was pushing a low-fat diet to government officials tasked with creating dietary guidelines.
High carbohydrate foods such as corn and wheat were subsidized by the government and were now widely available and very cheap.
High fructose corn syrup was invented.
The sugar industry was paying scientists to downplay the role of sugar in heart disease and to villainize fat.
The confluence of these factors led to decades of promoting a low-fat diet in favor of a high carbohydrate, grain-based diet. Nothing negative was said about sugar or high fructose corn syrup and they were quietly put in every food imaginable. Before you know it, we had the USDA’s infamous Food Pyramid that was plastered in every cafeteria across the nation.
So what does this mean for you? Although saturated fat and cholesterol are the agents that clog arteries which lead to heart attacks, the dietary consumption of them is not the proximal cause of their build-up. It is becoming increasingly clear that a diet high in refined carbohydrates may be the single biggest cause of obesity, heart disease, and many other types of chronic disease.
Sources: