Low-fat dieting has been a weight loss tactic for decades, but new research says fat isn’t what is making American’s obese.We’ve all heard that we should avoid saturated fats and lately, that there are “good fats” we should be eating, in moderation. A recent report shows that it isn’t fat making us fat, it’s too many carbohydrates and sugars. One of the lead researchers in this field, Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, said, “The country’s big low-fat message backfired. The overemphasis on reducing fat caused the consumption of carbohydrates and sugar in our diets to soar. That shift may be linked to the biggest health problems in America today.” Another expert, Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, declared flatly that “Fat is not the problem.”
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, who codirects the program in cardiovascular epidemiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and is an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, said, “No randomized trial looking at weight change has shown that people did better on a low-fat diet. For many people, low-fat diets are even worse than moderate or high-fat diets because they’re often high in carbohydrates from rapidly digested foods such as white flour, white rice, potatoes, refined snacks, and sugary drinks.”
Experts agree that there is little scientific evidence to show low-fat is effective. Many believe it has caused more problems for dieter’s health. There is too little talk of how good fats increase your good cholesterol. One doctor even went so far to say, “If you work out the numbers, you come to the surreal conclusion that you can eat lard straight from the can and conceivably reduce your risk of heart disease.”
What is your food diet made up of? Do you tend to lean to more grains and carbohydrate heavy foods or do you try to eat meat and veggies or a good mix of the two?
