Fat is no longer food enemy number one

A study just released in the USA has declared that for too long fat in foods has been the enemy of public health, and that the blame should instead be directed at three other food ingredients.

Scientists advising the US government on dietary guidelines have this week advised that a 60-year trend in nutritional advice, to avoid fatty foods as much as possible, should be stopped.

Instead, the scientists have identified the real enemies — palm oil, white flour, and refined sugar. These constitute the main ingredients in junk food.

In an interview with The New Daily, an Australian nutritionist said that this is advice already being given in Australia.

“Fat was made out to be the big evil in the diet,” said lifelong nutrition researcher Professor Neil Mann, who recently retired.

“We were told that if you took fat out, or reduced it significantly, then all our problems would go away and everything would be hunky dory.

“The reality is, that’s not the case.

“As we’ve seen, the actual fat consumption in America has been dropping for 40-odd years but the obesity problem is getting worse.”

“When you think about junk food, particularly the processed-type foods, it nearly has all these same ingredients,” Professor Mann said.

While we’ve tried to avoid fat in our food, we have instead consumed more in the way of starchy, refined grains and sugar.

“I worry more about people’s carb intake than their fat intake.

“Particularly as people get older and heavier anyway, diabetes becomes the real, main issue.”

We sould be eating unsaturated fats, whole grains and healthier kinds of sugar — canola oil, olive oil, lean meat, nuts and soybeans, brown rice, quinoa, rolled oats, and multigrain bread.

“Polyunsaturated fats are even positively healthy. In fact, you have a detrimental health effect if you don’t eat enough of them,” said Professor Mann.

“The most saturated fatty material you can eat is palm oil, which is dirt cheap. Most of our processed foods are absolutely loaded up with it.”

And sugar? That should be in our diets in the form of real fruits, not juice, and definitely sugar-laden treats and soft drinks.

“The brown stuff (sugar) still has a few minerals and vitamins in it, but the white stuff is purified.”

Is this dietary advice that you have already been following? What have you replaced sugary snacks with?