Fat-phobia gone haywire
Omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil
are genuinely and spectacularly beneficial for you. Yet Dr. Dean
Ornish, of 1980s-era low-fat fame, continues to issue warnings of
any fat’s dangers.
Don’t believe it.
The era up until the 1980s was indeed a fat-loaded
dietary Dark Age.
Americans indulged in excessive saturated fats: fried chicken, spare
ribs, French fries, gravy, bacon, Crisco, butter, etc. As research
connected saturated fat with high cholesterol and risk of heart
disease, hypertension, and cancer, the push to reduce saturated fat
intake was underway.
Along came people like Nathan Pritikin and Dr. Dean Ornish, both of
whom emerged as champions of a low-fat nutritional approach. Both
advocated a severe restriction in fat intake—all fat—to less than
10% of all calories.
This represented a dramatic improvement in prevailing habits. In
1980, this was a breakthrough. Instead of a pork chop dinner with
French fries and gravy on mashed potatoes, they encouraged rices,
grains, and vegetables. They discouraged meat of any variety,
shortening, frying, cooking oils, even salad oils.
That shift did indeed help many people succeed in losing weight,
reduce cholesterol, and even reduce angina symptoms (chest pain)
when the starting point was the traditional American fat-laden diet.
But times have changed. Gas is no longer $1.29 a gallon, Jimmy
Carter is no longer President, and most Americans don’t count daily
triple digit fat-gram intake.
In 2006, a low-fat diet is a perversion of health. The original
low-fat concept has morphed into an over-reliance on breads,
breakfast cereals, pasta, crackers, cookies, pretzels, chips and
other processed carbohydrates. These are the foods that pack 90% of
supermarket shelves and now constitute 70-80% of most Americans'
diet—diets of convenience.
All fats are bad?!
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