The low-fat diet has been a "massive public health failure" and it's still causing significant harm. This according to a new article by Dr. David Ludwig at Harvard, published in the influential Journal of the American Medical Association:
JAMA: Lowering the Bar on the Low-Fat DietEven though the 2015 USDA guidelines removed former advice to cut down on fat, decades of bad advice continues to have a negative effect on people's health.
Why? Because the high-carb, low-fat way of thinking is still entrenched in many people's minds. This results in an increased consumption of sugar and other carbs, increasing the risk of developing diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.
Furthermore, the continued fear of natural fats and an obsession with calories are slowing down research into more promising areas, like low-carbohydrate diets.
According to Dr. Ludwig, we now need "a frank accounting of past and current dietary recommendations and comprehensive measures to mitigate persisting harms from the low-fat diet era".
In other words, the low-fat diet is dead. But it's still harming people. It's time to finally put it to rest.
