Fat chance of getting consistent advice on diets

Feb 19 2006

The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Dietary Modification Trial, which involved nearly 49,000 women aged 50 to 79, over an eight year period, has confirmed that fat balance and fat quality are the key factors to be considered when people are aiming for good health and a lower risk of disease.

This largest study ever on whether a low-fat diet can lower the risk of cancer or heart disease, has found that, overall, a low-fat diet had no protective effect against these diseases.

Despite the 'I told you so attitude' of some experts, it remains that low-fat and non-fat were promoted as an almost holy grail often by public-health bodies that has, over the years, produced a run of conflicting advice on health and diet.

Former bad guy butter is now apparently not so bad for us in moderation, and no persuasive evidence has been produced that salt is bad for the heart and now of course fat.

Many public health groups are now explaining that they had already abandoned the "fat is bad" motto a long time ago, but in fact as recently as 2000, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) was enthusiastically recommending low-fat and high-fiber diets in its Action Guide for Healthy Eating.

The NCI’s related "Action List for Fat" called on consumers to use reduced-fat or non-fat salad dressings, low fat and fat-free foods and margarine.

The NCI also says that eating a healthy diet, low in fat, high in fiber may help to lower cancer risk.

It is now known that low-fat salad dressings for example can lead to more weight gain than their full-fat counterparts since the fat attraction often encourages people to dollop on more of it to feel satisfied, and we now too that most margarine is packed with unhealthy trans fats.

The high-fiber myth has also been shot down following a 2005 review of 13 studies that appeared in JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association which found that high-fiber diets did not reduce the risk of colon cancer.

The worry is that when presented with these new findings about the failings of low-fat diets is that many consumers may feel they can now eat fat of any kind in unlimited quantities.

This is not the case as saturated and trans fats will always be unhealthy, and high-potency, purified omega-3 fats are very healthy and will remain so.

The other danger is that consumers might begin to believe that all dietary advice is unreliable, and bad, and that everything should be disregarded.

The long applauded Mediterranean diet, which is rich in omega-9 fat (from olive oil) and omega-3 fats and is a diet high in essential fats rather than low in all fats, has not been given a mention.

The fact remains that a healthy diet is based on balance, which existed before the cholesterol crazes and low-fat/fat-free madness that began decades ago.

Consumers should in future be wary of jumping on the latest bandwagon since the ones, usually the wrong ones, centered on all-or-nothing, deprivation-focused approaches might well lead up the wrong path.