URGING people to follow low-fat diets and lower their cholesterol is apparently having disastrous health consequences.
In a damning report that accuses major public health bodies of colluding with the food industry, the National Obesity Forum and the Public Health Collaboration call for a “major overhaul” of current dietary guidelines.
They say the focus on low-fat diets is failing to address Britain’s obesity crisis, while snacking between meals is making people fat.
Instead, they call for a return to ‘whole foods’ such as meat, fish and dairy, as well as high-fat, healthy foods including avocados.
The report, released earlier in the year and which is said to have caused a huge backlash among the scientific community, also argues that saturated fat does not cause heart disease while full-fat dairy, including milk, yoghurt and cheese, can actually protect the heart.
Processed foods labelled ‘low fat’, ‘lite’, ‘low cholesterol’ or ‘proven to lower cholesterol’ should be avoided at all costs and people with type 2 diabetes should eat a fat-rich diet rather than one based on carbohydrates.
The report also says sugar should be avoided, people should stop counting calories and the idea that exercise could help you “outrun a bad diet” was a myth.
Instead, a diet low in refined carbohydrates but high in healthy fats was “an effective and safe approach for preventing weight gain and aiding weight loss” and cuts the risk of heart disease.
“Eating a diet rich in full-fat dairy, such as cheese, milk and yoghurt, can actually lower the chance of obesity” says the report.
“The most natural and nutritious foods available like meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, olive, avocados, all contain saturated fat.”
The authors of the report also argue that the science of food has also been ‘corrupted by commercial influences.’
Dr Aseem Malhotra, consultant cardiologist and founding member of the Public Health Collaboration, a group of medics, says dietary guidelines promoting low-fat foods are perhaps the biggest mistake in modern medical history, resulting in devastating consequences for public health.
“Sadly this unhelpful advice continues to be perpetuated. The current Eatwell Guide from Public Health England is in my view more like a metabolic time bomb than a dietary pattern conducive for good health. We must urgently change the message to the public to reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes,” he says.
“Eat fat to get slim. Don’t fear fat. Fat is your friend. It’s now truly time to bring back the fat.”
However, Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF) says the report is full of ideas and opinion, however it does not offer the robust and comprehensive review of evidence that would be required for the BHF, as the UK’s largest heart research charity, to take it seriously.
“This country’s obesity epidemic is not caused by poor dietary guidelines; it is that we are not meeting them,” he adds.
Are you as confused as I am right now? Eat fat or don’t eat fat? Go on a diet or don’t go on a diet?
Which message are we supposed to take into consideration and who should we listen to at the end of the day?!