The 40-year fat experiment didn’t work. Now what? |
For decades, the message was simple: eat less fat. So millions of people switched to skimmed milk, fat-free salad dressing, and low fat snack bars. The result? “We spent 40 years stripping fat out of food and replacing it with refined starch and sugar, then acted surprised when obesity rates tripled, and type 2 diabetes skyrocketed,” says bariatric surgeon Dr. Hector Perez.
All three experts Medical News Today consulted agreed the old low fat orthodoxy is dead. But they differ on what comes next. Perez calls low fat advice “obsolete and naïve,” noting that fat-free products are often loaded with sugar. Dietitian Kristin Kirkpatrick points to a recent study showing diet quality matters more than whether you go low fat or low carb.
Preventive cardiology dietitian Michelle Routhenstein takes a more cautious line. She still recommends keeping saturated fat below 10% of daily calories, depending on your cardiovascular risk, and favours swapping saturated fat for unsaturated sources rather than simply eating more of everything. “Swapping is more beneficial than eliminating altogether,“ she says.
For more on which fats to limit and why the location of body fat may matter more than your weight, jump to “Is everything we know about fat wrong? Experts debunk 4 myths.”
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