The Low-Fat Diet Flunks Another Test

 
The title comes from an article by John Tierney on his blog [Tierney Lab: Putting Ideas in Science to the Test].

It's not really news. Low-fat diets have been challenged for years. There is good evidence that the Atkins diet really works for some people and it's healthy. Tierny gives us a quotation from a recent New York Times article that reported on a massive study recently completed.

The largest study ever to ask whether a low-fat diet reduces the risk of getting cancer or heart disease has found that the diet has no effect.

The $415 million federal study involved nearly 49,000 women ages 50 to 79 who were followed for eight years. In the end, those assigned to a low-fat diet had the same rates of breast cancer, colon cancer, heart attacks and strokes as those who ate whatever they pleased, researchers are reporting today.

‘’These studies are revolutionary,'’ said Dr. Jules Hirsch, physician in chief emeritus at Rockefeller University in New York City, who has spent a lifetime studying the effects of diets on weight and health. ‘’They should put a stop to this era of thinking that we have all the information we need to change the whole national diet and make everybody healthy.'’

All studies on human diets and nutrition are suspect, in my opinion. It's just the nature of the game. There are always contradictory results.

I'm not going to say that fat is never bad for you. What I say is that you should be skeptical about all claims concerning diet and health. They all need to be taken with a grain of salt (and a pound of steak ). Whenever you hear someone claiming to have all the answers you can dismiss them without a second thought. Nobody has the answers in this field, and that includes Professors, scientists, and physicians.