Via Instapundit: Let's say you want to lose some weight. Which of these foods would you choose: A skim-milk latte, or the same drink with whole milk? A low-cal breakfast bar or steak and eggs? A salad tossed in light dressing or the same salad doused with buttermilk ranch?
If you're like most Americans, you either aren't sure how to answer, or you're very sure—but very wrong. And it's not your fault. It's the fault, experts say, of decades of flawed or misleading nutrition advice—advice that was never based on solid science.
The US Department of Agriculture, along with the agency that is now called Health and Human Services, first released a set of national dietary guidelines back in 1980. That 20-page booklet trained its focus primarily on three health villains: fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol.
Recently, research has come out strongly in support of dietary fat and cholesterol as benign, rather than harmful, additions to person's diet. Saturated fat seems poised for a similar pardon.
"The science that these guidelines were based on was wrong," Robert Lustig, a neuro-endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco, told Tonic. In particular, the idea that cutting fat from a person's diet would offer some health benefit was never backed by hard evidence, Lustig said.
Just this week, some of Lustig's colleagues at UCSF released an incendiary report revealing that in the 1960s, sugar industry lobbyists funded research that linked heart disease to fat and cholesterol while downplaying evidence that sugar was the real killer.
If you're like most Americans, you either aren't sure how to answer, or you're very sure—but very wrong. And it's not your fault. It's the fault, experts say, of decades of flawed or misleading nutrition advice—advice that was never based on solid science.
The US Department of Agriculture, along with the agency that is now called Health and Human Services, first released a set of national dietary guidelines back in 1980. That 20-page booklet trained its focus primarily on three health villains: fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol.
Recently, research has come out strongly in support of dietary fat and cholesterol as benign, rather than harmful, additions to person's diet. Saturated fat seems poised for a similar pardon.
"The science that these guidelines were based on was wrong," Robert Lustig, a neuro-endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco, told Tonic. In particular, the idea that cutting fat from a person's diet would offer some health benefit was never backed by hard evidence, Lustig said.
Just this week, some of Lustig's colleagues at UCSF released an incendiary report revealing that in the 1960s, sugar industry lobbyists funded research that linked heart disease to fat and cholesterol while downplaying evidence that sugar was the real killer.
(Link to more)
11 comments:
Sugar?
I lost 13 pounds since I moved to Las Vegas without making any attempt to - no dieting, no working out. I'm just very busy. I'm my own pool boy, gardener and handyman now. Why starve yourself or waste money and time in a gym. Just do some work. It saves money and accomplishes something. It seems crazy to me to pay for a gym, and go there to work your ass off getting nothing done.
The sad truth is that if you eat your fill, you will get fat.......I was given one superpower. In my youth and well into my forties, I could eat prodigious amounts and stay skinny. Looking back, I would say that such a metabolism was a greater blessing than great wealth or magnetism., but it was transient......As you get older, the metalbolism slows down--some two or more green percent a year. Due to the wonders of compounding, by the time you hit old age, there are no muffins or French fries and minimal amounts of BBQ. It's a bleak, joyless existence.
bagoh20 said...
I'm my own pool boy, gardener and handyman now. Why starve yourself or waste money and time in a gym. Just do some work. It saves money and accomplishes something.
Well said, O wise one.
Out of respect for Bags and Ed I'll skip my trip to the gym today.
I stopped paying attention to food studies long long ago. I eat what I want when I want.
Some time ago Chip explained how the search for good peaches usually went:
Crap
Crap
Crap
Amazing. Food of the Gods.
Crap
Crap
Crap
I write this because I have recently come across Food of the Gods peaches. Interestingly, they were labeled "Colorado" peaches. I don't know what that means.
I also have a few most excellent strawberries. That's not so unusual but the two together make for a memorable summer snack. In a few weeks it'll be back to crap.
The Jersey blueberries, the batch purchased this past weekend, are batting about .650.
Ha ha ha. That Chip, what a character. O wait. What?
I now have heavy whipping cream, confectioner's sugar, pure vanilla extract and pound cake.
I wonder what I could do? Does vanilla get old? It's been around for a while.
Wow, Colorado peach season starting so soon again? I went a bit crazy last year by getting three full boxes of two varieties of Palisade peaches of which nearly all were eaten by just me. In self defense it had been many years since I had a Palisade peach. The first box I got was outstanding with juice just dripping as I ate it. Almost as good as picking them perfectly ripe from the tree and eating them on the spot. I may consider getting some canning equipment and saving them for winter treats. I can never seem to fit my schedule to actually go over to the Western slope orchards to eat them in the best condition. Go to a farmer's market or a produce store like Heinie's Market in Wheat Ridge to get boxes of peaches from Palisade. There are also people selling them from the back of their vehicle during peak season all over the metro area.
Anyway I would totally substitute ripe juicy peaches for strawberries in a shortcake during peach season. Avoid the shortcake they usually sell to combine in a strawberry shortcake as it is too much like sponge cake and does not absorb the juices and cream very well. You are much better off using a plain pound cake as the cake base. Layer slices of cake, sliced peaches and whipped cream for at least two layers and top off with more peaches and cream. Let it set for a while to let the pound cake absorb some juices. You could probably put a dash of vanilla on top of your creation. I never had any problem with pure vanilla going bad.
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