Government dietary ‘experts’ retract some – but not all -- of their bad advice

The alarming numbers tell a frightening story: in the last three decades diabetes and obesity rates have doubled in the U.S.

Somehow, we’ve become a fatter and sicker nation than at any other time in our history.

Public health officials keep fishing around for reasons why – things like we’re less active, or we don’t get enough sleep. Maybe next they’ll say it’s all because of global warming!

But it turns out the real reason is their fault.

Egg on their faces

Every five years, by law, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee gets together to put out its report on the “official” way Americans are supposed to eat.

And for 35 years now, we’ve been getting deadly dietary advice from it. Advice warning us about the “evils” of fat and cholesterol, all while shoving a sickening high-carb, high-sugar diet down our throats.

So of course, when the news was recently announced that the DGAC just did a 180-degree turn on cholesterol, saying it no longer considers it to be a “nutrient of concern,” it made headlines.

Surprising? Not really. Because considering how behind the curve this group is, they couldn’t really hold onto that cholesterol myth much longer without being given dunce hats and told to sit in the corner.

Even though it sounds like a breakthrough of sorts, it’s really not. Because even after admitting that it gave you bad – and even dangerous – advice on cholesterol for 35 years, the DGAC still holds on to the party line that fat is bad for you.

How this group could have missed the fact that the low-fat, no-fat sacred cow was put out to pasture a very long time ago is a deep, dark mystery.

Especially with all the new research that keeps coming out.

For example:

A recent study from Tulane University published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that cutting your carbs – NOT fat – will do more to help you lose weight and protect your heart than any tasteless, low-fat diet ever could.Not only did the people in this study lose weight eating eggs, butter and red meat (two of which are high on the committee’s “bad” list), but they showed a healthy increase in HDL – the “good” kind of cholesterol.
Last year, other research, also published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that a kind of dairy fat called margaric acid can “significantly reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.” And guess where you can find a great source of this margaric acid? In butter!
A big study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine found that a Mediterranean-type diet – one high in olive oil and other good fats, like those found in nuts – will slash your diabetes risk by a whopping 40 percent. And, for people who already have diabetes, eating this way lowered their heart attack and stroke risk by 30 percent.

And then there’s coconut oil, a “forbidden” saturated fat that may be in a special category all on its own.

Last year Danish researchers, in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, discovered that not only is fat necessary for our brains to stay healthy, but that one of the best kinds is coconut oil.

The researchers said that a diet high in good fats like coconut oil may be able to “postpone aging processes.” In fact, certain fats are so good for your brain that they may even be able to help patients with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

So while this committee might have tossed us an egg or two, the rest of its guidance is no more than a rehash of 35 years of dangerous dietary advice.

Source:

“The U.S. government is poised to withdraw longstanding warnings about cholesterol” Peter Whoriskey, February 10, 2015, The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com