Noted nutrition experts are urging the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to forget about fat in the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The guidelines will be issued later this year, following recommendations from an expert committee.
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian of Tufts University and Dr. David Ludwig of Boston Children’s Hospital write in JAMA that previous guidelines contributed to the obesity epidemic. That’s because they told Americans to limit total dietary fat.
Avoiding fat led people to eat more sugar, bread, rice, chips, crackers and bakery desserts. These are major sources of calories in the American diet. Sugar-sweetened beverages also add calories for many Americans.
These experts say Americans should eat more vegetables and healthful high-fat foods like avocados, fish and nuts. That would help their diets more than cutting out fat.
The previous dietary recommendations told Americans to follow a low-fat diet. Experts have been debating the pros and cons of this advice for a long time. You may be interested in listening to our Show 966, The Benefits of Butter, to learn about the evidence on why you could safely forget about fat.
