Even though elevated blood sugar is the common denominator of obesity, diabetes, and diet-related heart disease, the words  “blood sugar” do not appear in the federal government’s official 2010 Dietary Guidelines.

Professor Joanne Slavin, University of Minnesota, Carbohydrate Chairperson, 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, Carbohydrate Chairperson

During Day 2 of the first meeting of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC), Joanne Slavin, PhD, RD, Professor, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Minnesota, chair of the Carbohydrate Committee, took the stand.

It was Halloween Day, October 30, 2008.

Professor Slavin: 

“High fructose corn sweeteners do not appear to contribute to overweight and obesity any differently than other energy sources… calories are calories and high fructose corn sweeteners are no different than other calories, calorie per calorie…”

Even before any public or scientific testimony, Dr. Slavin blocked any chance that blood-sugar-raising-refined carbohydrates  would be even mentioned in the “science-based” guidelines. A calorie of avocado, she was testifying, was no different than a calorie of corn syrup.

Professor Slavin:  “Grading carbohydrates good or bad would be too controversial.”

A General Mills VP is a member of the International Food Information Council Foundation in Washington, DC, a group that by its own admission is heavily involved in nominating DGAC members.

Controversial to whom?  To the general public hoping to dodge diabetes – or to Minnesota-based food companies like cereal-maker General Mills, a generous supporter financially of Slavin’s employer, the Nutrition School at the University of Minnesota.

Professor Slavin:  “Recommendation for added sugars is that they not be more than 25 percent of total calories …”

In the midst of obesity and diabetes epidemics, Professor Slavin is saying it’s perfectly okay for Americans to consume up to 25 percent of their calories as sugar!

Carbohydrates raise blood sugar; fats do not. Yet the 2010 Dietary guidelines say limit and restrict natural dietary fat and nutrient dense  foods like eggs, but its okay to consume up to 25 percent of calories as sugar.

Know we know why we are stuck in a diabetes epidemic!

Is it fair to ask, how did Slavin get selected to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC). Did she appoint herself Carbohydrate Chair? Was her Halloween Day testimony a trick on the 25 percent of the population that is diabetic or pre-diabetic and a big treat for Big Sugar?

You can read the transcripts yourself at:

  www.cnpp.usda.gov/DGAs2010-Meeting1.htm

This women is suffering from cellular starvation; chronic high insulin levels prevent her from accessing her abundant stored energy and constant hunger is the result.

Flat in the ’60s and ’70s, obesity only began to increase after 1980, the year the ”low fat” Dietary Guidelines for Americans became the “Cornerstone of U.S. nutrition policy.” But if you limit fat and foods that contain fat – like red meat – you must eat more of something else and for a majority of Americans that something else has been carbohydrates.

For more than 30 years, we’ve been told to emphasize foods that raise blood sugar:  box cereal, bread, fruit, fruit juices, pasta and grain. As a result, we dramatically increased our consumption of breakfast pastries, grain products, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and a host of ”low fat” products often displaying the American Heart Association low fat ”seal of approval.”

But here’s the rub:  Carbohydrates elevate blood sugar; fat and protein do not. (Excess protein can turn into glucose;  fat never does.) Chronic elevated blood sugar leads to high insulin. As the fat storage hormone, insulin converts excess sugars into fat – and as long as insulin is at a high level in the circulation, fat is locked up. A person may have stored energy to burn – but cannot access the fat (adipose tissue) when insulin remains elevated.

Daily excess carb intake keeps stored fat under hormonal lock and key. As long as insulin remains elevated, stored fat is not available as energy to the body’s trillions of hungry cells.

Obesity is a consequence of cellular starvation - not eating too much. A lean person with a “healthy appetite” is never accused of eating too much. The problem:  locked up adipose fat -  cellular starvation – hunger – carbohydrate cravings. It is the quality of the calories that matter  – and how those calories influence our hormones and metabolism.

Eat fat and your body burns fat.

The CDC in Atlanta referred to diabetes as a “dangerous runaway train.” Obesity feeds diabetes, and in all 50 states, the obesity rate is over 20 percent. The first step in ending obesity and type II diabetes is revising the “low fat” high carbohydrate Dietary Guidelines for Americans – in 2015.

USDA will be selecting a 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee next year. You better believe Big Sugar will want to pick their own committee member again – the Carbohydrate Chair – and keep the bad news about easily-digested carbohydrates out of the official Dietary Guidelines for another five years.

If you are tired of the worn out mantra low fat = good health, please pass this story on!

“The overemphasis on reducing fat caused the consumption of carbohydrates and sugar in our diets to soar. That shift may be linked to the biggest health problems in America today.”

Fruit juice with “no added sugar” is full of sugar!

For over 50 years the medical establishment, the American Heart Association (AHA), public health officials, registered dietitians and reporters have been telling us to eat a low fat/high carbohydrate diet and – in particular – to replace saturated fat with vegetable shortenings and oils. Now, according to food writer Kristin Wartman:

“There are clear indications that an important tipping point in the mainstream understanding of fat and nutrition is underway.”1

Low fat began in the mid-1950s. Urged on by Ancel Keys, the American Heart Association said all fat is bad. From the 1960s through the 1980s, it was eat good polyunsaturated fat and limit bad saturated fat. When the bad news about trans fatty acids (TFAs) could no longer be concealed,  it became eat good fats (olive oil, canola, fish) and avoid bad fats (saturated, trans fats).

Has low fat failed the test of time?

Most cookbook writers, public health experts, doctors, and registered dietitians are still reluctant to say anything good about saturated fats. Saturated fat – the greasy scapegoat – has been blamed for just about everything. After trans fats, they are the most reviled element in the Low Fat dietary kingdom.

Even the Paleolithic or Stone Age diet went low fat. Jean Carper’s version of a Stone Age Salad includes “mixed greens, garbanzo beans, and skinless chicken breasts.”2 Not backed by any reference to lipid biochemistry – we’re told to remove skin from the chicken in the mistaken belief that it’s got to be saturated fat. It isn’t. Chicken fat is 70 percent unsaturated – predominantly monounsaturated oleic acid (42%), same as olive oil (70%).

The Paleo diet wasn’t lean and it didn’t include beans or grains. Hunter-gatherers ate meat and fat from every kind of animal – including skin, intestines and brains. They also consumed a variety of nuts, seeds, wild plants, fruits, insects, worms and occasionally eggs. As Nora T. Gedgaudas wrote in her excellent book, Primal Body, Primal Mind:

“We are all – biologically, genetically, and physiologically – without exception – hunter-gatherers.”3

When Europeans rolled into America, Native American staples included moose, elk, caribou, deer, antelope, bear, and buffalo. They ate the entire animal and used every bit of the fat. The brains were eaten raw, and the internal kidney fat of grass-eating animals was highly prized.4 

In The Ways of my Grandmothers, Beverly Hungry Wolf describes how foods considered important for reproduction were animal foods rich in fat. “Boiled tongue was an ancient delicacy,” she says, “served as the food of communion at the Sun Dance.” According to Hungry Wolf:

“All the insides, such as heart, kidneys and liver, were prepared and eaten, roasted or baked or laid out in the sun to dry.”5 

Ruminant animal fat is rich in Vitamin A, balanced in omega 3 and 6, and contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fat-burning, anti-cancer fatty acid manufactured in the cow’s 4-chambered stomach.6    Grain-fed animals have less Vitamin A, less CLA, less omega 3, and too much omega 6.

Native Americans living on the “fat of the land” had broad faces, high cheekbones, straight teeth and fine physiques. Early explorers consistently described the natives as strong and well formed. According to explorer Cabeza De Vaca, “The men could run after a deer for an entire day without resting and without apparent fatigue…”7

This man did not eat Cheerios and skimmed (of nutrition) milk for breakfast!

No longer Paleolithic or Native American, the 1910 American diet contained mineral-rich organic vegetables, wild berries, whole carbohydrates processed in the home, pasture-raised animals, and up to 40 percent or more of calories from traditional saturated fats.

Fat in the American diet has always ranged from 30 to 43 percent of calories. 8 You can put away your calculator; there is no best one-size-fits-all percentage of calories as fat. Americans have lived for hundreds of years on a wide range of fat – but always a wide range of minimally processed natural fats.

In 1910, one third of the population lived on farms and Americans ate more cholesterol and saturated fat than they do today. People cooked with fat rendered from beef, poultry, chicken and pork. Butter, cream, and “drippings” were highly valued. In 1910, animal fats comprised 83 percent of fat calories. Per capita butter consumption was 18 pounds. 9

By 1970, the proportion of animal fats had declined to 62 percent of fat calories and per capita butter consumption had fallen to about 4 pounds. During the same period, vegetable fat consumption increased 400 percent and our consumption of sugar and refined foods increased 60 percent. 10

Dietary fat consumption during the period 1930 to 1985 increased from 124 to 164 grams per day. Most of the 40 gram increase came in the form of highly processed polyunsaturated vegetable fats such as margarine and shortening. 11

Mary G. Enig, PhD, author, Know Your /Fats

“The presence of the trans fatty acids in the diet today are causing shifts in favor of chronic disease.”

Trans fatty acids (TFAs) are created when vegetable seed oils are partially hydrogenated – turned into a more solid fat – for baking and cooking purposes. According to Dr. Enig:

“The trans fatty acids do not behave like saturated fatty acids in biological systems although they do behave like numerous saturated fatty acids in food preparation.”12

According to Enig, during the hydrogenation process, up to 50 percent of the fatty acids convert from the natural cis-configuration to the not found in nature trans-configuration. Nonetheless, ignoring Dr. Enig’s warnings that span three decades, the federal Dietary Guidelines (1980-2010) continue to recommend these new, untested polyunsaturated commercial vegetable oils while singling out saturated tropical fats as “bad.”

In the official low fat 2010 Dietary Guidelines, the not-found-in-nature trans fatty acids and natural saturated fats are lumped together into a scientifically meaningless category called “Solid Fats.”

Ideal for baking and cooking because they are heat stable, tropical coconut, palm, and palm kernel oil have nourished healthy populations for centuries. Coconut fat is the best source of medium chain (12 carbon) lauric acid, an anti-microbial fatty acid found only in tropical oils, butter and human milk. Used by the body to kill pathogenic viruses and bacteria, lauric acid is readily burned for energy and not stored as body fat. 13

In 1986, the Washington DC-based nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) – along with the soybean oil industry – spearheaded an anti-saturated fat, anti-tropical fat campaign.  In 1986, while CSPI was lobbying and recommending trans fats, they also petitioned the FDA to introduce legislation requiring “singularly pejorative anti-tropical oils labeling.”

Although the effort failed, the CSPI book, The Saturated Fat Attack, spewed out enough disinformation to deliver the final blow to the U.S. tropical oil business. 14 As a result, fast food restaurants, commercial bakeries and movie theaters across the country replaced traditional time-tested coconut and butter with trans-laden partially hydrogenated soybean oil and imitation butter.

Substituting partially hydrogenated soybean oil in French fries, baked goods and popcorn meant a substantial increase in trans fat consumption as well as increase in overly processed omega 6 fat consumption in the American diet.

 Lancet, 1993, vol. 341.

 “Margarine correlates with the risk of heart disease more strongly than any other food, including butter.”

Throughout the 80s and 90s the Heart Institute, the American Heart Association, and nonprofits such as CSPI were using fear tactics to scare the public into buying more “imitation” fats – margarine and partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Now, like the cat who ate the canary, they are backpedaling – warning us to avoid these new fangled ‘bad’ trans fatty acids! Oh really! They’re bad for us? You’re kidding aren’t you?

Michael Pollan in his book:  In Defense of Food   

“The amount of saturated fat in the diet may have little if any bearing on the risk of heart disease and the evidence that increasing polyunsaturated fats in the diet will reduce risk is slim to nil.”

Eat your toast dry or dipped in olive oil?

Butter fat or cream is the most complex food fat of all – containing 12 different fatty acids including 8 different saturated fats.

Has it really come to that? Is butter more fattening? To compare: Butter is 80 percent fat, 20 percent water; olive oil is 100 percent fat. Hence, dipping your sourdough in olive oil – instead of an even spread of butter – will increase your fat intake 2 to 3 times. While a higher fat intake is good, there’s an advantage to using butter on your toast.

Butter contains 15-17 percent short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids. These fats are sent – via the portal vein – directly to the liver and do not enter the general circulation. In the liver, the short chain saturated fats in butter inhibit the growth of pathogenic fungi, and medium chain lauric acid kills or disables many pathogenic viruses and other organisms.

Containing predominantly long chain (18 carbon) oleic acid – a fat that enters the general circulation – the fatty acids of olive oil fat are more readily stored in adipose tissue (fat cells). In a word, olive oil is potentially more fattening than butter, especially when eaten with excess carbohydrate – as in the 6-11 servings of grain recommended in the Food Guide Pyramid.

Butter – not olive oil – is an excellent source of these anti-microbial fats. Use both. Olive oil (extra virgin) and butter (grass fed cows) are healthy natural fats with their own respective roles to play in cooking and nutrition. What you don’t want are the chemically unstable, polyunsaturated, highly processed vegetable oils, margarines, and shortenings.

Big Food Pyramid Schemes created the obesity and diabetes epidemics.

Nor do we need any more unscientific smear campaigns against healthy natural saturated fats. The Anti-Saturated Fat campaign has hurt people, patients, communities and farmers alike. Refined vegetable oils and “plastic” trans fats have set us on this road to ruin – the slippery slope of chronic disease.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

 References

1. “The last days of the low-fat diet fad,” Kristin Wartman, Grist online at http://bit.ly/SM9tdz.
2. Fallon, Sally; Enig, Mary: “Guts and Grease,” Wise Traditions, Spring 2001, p. 40.
3. Nora T. Gedgaudas, Primal Body, Primal Mind: Healing Arts Press, 2009, p. 5.
4. Beverly Hungry Wolf, The Ways of My Grandmother, Quill, 1982, p. 187.
5. Hungry Wolf, p. 184.
6. Fallon, Enig, “Guts and Grease,” p.42.
7. The explorer Cabeza de Vaca is quoted in WW Newcomb, The Indians of Texas, 1961, University of Texas.
8. Mary Enig, Know Your Fats, Bethesda Press, 2000, p. 96.
9. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions, New Trends Publishing, 1999, p. 5
10. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions, p. 5.
11. Enig, Know Your Fats, pgs 93-96.
12. Enig, Know Your Fats, p. 40.
13. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions, p. 17.
14. Enig, Know Your Fats, p. 166.

What happened between 1950 and 2010 to explain the unprecedented increase in diabetes that is now affecting an astonishing 25 percent of the population?

————————————————————————————————————————————-

Comparing USDA’s Home & Garden Bulletin No. 1 – Family Fare – food management and recipes  (February 1950) with information from the low fat 2010 Dietary Guidelines (MyPlate.gov), you will note a seismic shift in nutritional advice between 1950 and 2010. Did the science change during these decades or has the politics changed. Please, compare and decide…

When you could fill up for a dollar or two, obesity and diabetes were not public health problems. Today they are Twin Tower epidemics!

1.     Nutrition Goals

1950:  Are you one of the country’s 33,000,000 homemakers trying to do a blue-ribbon job of feeding your family well? This booklet offers suggestions to help you serve enjoyable meals to keep your family well nourished, to practice thrift when need be, and to save time and energy where you can.

2010:  Eating and physical activity patterns that are focused on consuming fewer calories, making informed food choices, and being physically active can help people attain and maintain a healthy weight, reduce their risk of chronic disease, and promote overall health.

—————————————————————————————————————————-

1950:  The right food helps you to be at your best in health & vitality. An individual well fed from babyhood has a more likely chance to enjoy a long prime of life. [emphasis mine]

2010:  Enjoy your food, but eat less. Use a smaller plate, bowl, and glass. That way you can finish your entire plate and feel satisfied without overeating. [our behavior is the issue?]

2.     Complete Protein

1950:  You get top-rating proteins in foods from animal sources, as in meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk and cheese. Some of these protein foods are needed each day; and it is an advantage to include some in each meal.

2010:  We all need protein—but most Americans eat enough, and some eat more than they need…. Try beans and peas, soy products, nuts and seeds. They are naturally low in saturated fat and high in fiber.

3.     Iron

1950:  One of the essential materials for red blood cells is iron. Liver is outstanding for iron. Some of the other foods that add iron are egg yolks, meat in general, and peas and beans.

2010:  Some ready-to-eat and cooked cereals are fortified with iron.  When you are pregnant, choose these cereals to help meet your increased need for iron.  Choose cereals that say “Iron fortified.” [no mention of the superior quality of heme iron from animal sources]. Also, why do fortified foods now say:  “Reduced Iron”?

Butter is our best daily source of Vitamin A – not mentioned in MyPlate!

4.     Vitamin A

1950:  Vitamin A is important to the young for growth. Many vitamins help protect the body against infection, and Vitamin A’s guard duty is to help keep the skin and linings of the nose, mouth and inner organs in good condition. If these surfaces are weakened, bacteria [and viruses] can invade more easily.

You can get Vitamin A from animal foods. Good sources are liver, egg yolks, butter, whole milk and cream, and cheese made from whole milk or cream.

2010:   Too much vitamin A from supplements can cause birth defects. [that’s all I could find]

Sunshine reaching cholesterol in your skin creates Vitamin D – but if it’s cloudy or wintry?

5.     Vitamin D

1950:  Egg yolk, butter, salmon, tuna and sardines help out with Vitamin D. [lard, the best source of vitamin D was already omitted, reflecting the rising sales of Crisco hydrogenated shortening by 1950.]

2010:  Fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk or soy beverages that are fortified with vitamin D are good sources of this nutrient. Other sources include vitamin D-fortified yogurt and vitamin D-fortified ready-to-eat breakfast cereals.

6.     Meat, poultry

1950:  Meat – there’s nothing else like it – the prized savoriness of meat. But all the skill of good cooking must be brought to bear on retaining this good flavor.  Beef may be cooked rare, medium, or well done.

• U.S. Choice – Excellent quality and flavor, tender and juicy, good distribution of fat throughout the lean meat.
• If you buy ungraded beef, you can be reasonably sure of high quality beef when the lean is light red, velvety-appearing, and liberally veined with fat, when bones are red, and the fat is flaky and white.
• For top quality poultry, look for a plump bird with well-fleshed breast and legs, well distributed fat, and skin that has few blemishes and pinfeathers. Too much fat is wasteful unless used in other dishes such as sauces, gravies, and cookies.
  

  Chicken fat contains palmitoleic acid, a fatty acid that kills bacteria and viruses. What’s that about removing the skin?

2010:  Choose lean or low-fat cuts of meat like round or sirloin and ground beef that is at least 90% lean.  Trim or drain fat from meat and remove poultry skin.

•  The leanest beef cuts include…
• The leanest pork choices include…
• Choose extra lean ground beef… You may be able to find ground beef that is 93% or 95% lean.
• Buy skinless chicken parts, or take off the skin before cooking.
• Boneless skinless chicken breasts and turkey cutlets are the leanest poultry choices.

Lard had 70% of the edible fat market in 1910

7.     Fats, oils

1950:  Plan to use some table fat daily plus other fats as needed in cooking, including butter, bacon, salad oil, salt pork, lard, suet, drippings. [margarine, shortening are also on the list.]

2010:  Most of the fats you eat should be polyunsaturated (PUFA) or monounsaturated (MUFA) fats:  Some commonly eaten oils include:

• canola oil
• corn oil
• cottonseed oil
• olive oil
• safflower oil
• soybean oil
• sunflower oil

8.     Gravies, sauces

1950:  To make good gravy, you need drippings rich enough to flavor added liquids which may be broth, milk or water.

• Braised chops: Make gravy with the drippings or pour the drippings over the chops on the platter.
• Plain dish turns party fare when graced with sauce that’s tangy or mellow – a savory gravy – or a gentle sweetening for dessert

2010:  Using heavy gravies or sauces will add fat and calories to otherwise healthy choices. For example, steamed broccoli is great but avoid topping it with cheese sauce.

9.      Salt, sodium

1950:  Use iodized table salt regularly. [Not much concern about salt]

2010:  Cut back on salt. Your taste for salt will lessen over time. [what does that really mean?]  Foods like soy sauce, ketchup, pickles, olives, salad dressings, and seasoning packets are high in sodium. [but no mention of HFCS].  Popcorn can be a healthy snack. Make it with little or no added salt or butter.  [Remember, butter is our best daily source of vitamin A!]       

10.  Main meal, tips and recipes

1950:   The dish that gets star billing at your table – whether it’s a sizzling steak or tangy cheese casserole – is called the main dish.

• Recipe for fried liver with bacon. Sprinkle liver with salt, pepper, and flour. Cook in bacon fat at moderate heat.
• Meat, poultry, and fish offer satisfying flavor and stick-to-the-ribs quality when we’re hungry. And these are the foods that abound in high quality protein.
• Another hearty trio – milk, cheese, and eggs – are main meal favorites.
• Pot roast of beef: Rub the meat with salt, pepper and flour, and brown on all sides in a little hot fat in a deep heavy pan with cover.
• Baste a chicken or turkey several times with melted fat or drippings.
• Some of the main dishes we like best are combinations. Dear to our hearts are rich brown stews with potatoes or dumplings, chicken with flaky rice, macaroni and cheese.

2010:   Think about how you can adjust the portions on your plate to get more of what you need without too many calories.  Find out how many calories you need for a day as a first step in managing your weight.

• Regular cream cheese, cream, and butter are not part of the dairy food group. They are high in saturated fat and have little or no calcium. [and that's why they are not part of the dairy group? Hello!]
• Use fat-free or low-fat milk on cereal and oatmeal. Top fruit salads and baked potatoes with low-fat yogurt instead of higher fat toppings such as sour cream.
• Aim to make at least half your grains whole grains.  [other half can be refined just as sugar is refined]
• Add fruit to meals as part of main or side dishes or as dessert.
• Canned vegetables are a great addition to any meal.
• Any fruit or 100% fruit juice counts as a part of the Fruit Group. [Fruit has a poor nutrient to sugar ratio]
• Drink 100% orange or grapefruit juice. Or, try a fruit mixed with fat-free or low-fat yogurt.
• Cut back on foods high in solid fats, added sugars, and salt. [what’s a solid fat – butter until you melt it?]
• 

   

 

1830  Sugar consumption in the US is 15 pounds per capita (much of it molasses). Today:  150 pounds per capita (much of it high fructose corn syrup).

 1863  William Banting published Letter On Corpulence, Addressed to the Public. Banting had lost 85 pounds on a high fat, carbohydrate-restricted diet. The British Medical Journal and Lancet reported that Banting’s diet could be dangerous:  “We advise Mr Banting, and everyone of his kind, not to meddle with medical literature again, but be content to mind his own business.”

1880-1910 U.S. population doubled from 37 to 75 million. One out of three people lived on a farm – and ate from the farm. The U.S. population today is over 300 million and about 1 percent live on a farm.    

1906 Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle exposed unsanitary and inhumane conditions in Chicago area slaughterhouses. Reported meat sales fell 50 percent and took years to recover. As is true today, the highest quality safest meat was pasture-raised on the small mixed farms that dotted much of the American landscape.

1910  Lifetime risk of type II diabetes was 1 in 30; today 1 in 3 according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta.

 1910  Butter consumption = 18 pounds per capita – mortality from heart disease was below 10 percent. (Infections killed a majority of people; a high percentage of infants and women of child-bearing age died during the birthing process.) Today as we consume our “Country Croak,” the mortality from heart disease is 40 to 45 percent. Dr. Andrew Weil and the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins agree:  “Eat butter; not margarine, regardless of the claims the manufacturer is making for it!”

 1910  Lard, the rendered fat from outdoor-living pigs, was the #1 cooking fat – enjoying 70 percent of the market. Lard was the best source of Vitamin D and a good source of palmitoleic acid, a monounsaturated anti-microbial fatty acid that kills bacteria and viruses. Today highly processed soybean oil has 70 percent of the market; zero vitamin D. Now the same experts who told us not to eat lard are telling us we are deficient in Vitamin D!

 1911  Proctor & Gamble introduce Crisco, first shortening made from hydrogenated vegetable fat. P & G bought the patent for hydrogenation from an English company that was attempting to make candles out of the artificially hardened fat. When rural electrification wiped out the candle market, P & G hydrogenated vegetable oil and introduced Crisco, a cheap alternative to lard. Crisco featured a much longer shelf life and, over decades, gave unsuspecting Americans hundreds of millions of pounds of trans fatty acids.

1912  Dr. James B. Herrick first described a form of heart disease he called “hardening of the arteries.”

1918  The electrocardiogram was introduced helping to launch cardiology.

1920  As sugary soft drinks become popular, sugar consumption reaches 100 pounds per capita.

1921  Canadian physician Frederick Banting and medical student Charles H. Best discovered the hormone insulin in pancreatic extracts of dogs.

1924  Four cardiologists found the American Heart Association (AHA) – a non-fund-raising association of medical doctors.

1930  Margarine consumption reaches 2.6 pounds per capita – and growing – as is the sale of trans-fat laden Crisco hydrogenated shortening.

 1934  Blood test for cholesterol developed. (Because cholesterol could be measured, it wasn’t long before it got the blame!)

1937  Columbia University biochemists David Rittenberg & Rudolph Schoenheimer demonstrated that dietary cholesterol had very little effect on blood cholesterol. Never refuted, to this day the U.S. Dietary Guidelines restrict dietary cholesterol to fewer than 300 milligrams a day.

1948  Boosted by butter and lard shortages during WWII, vegetable fat consumption reaches  28 pounds per capita. Trans fat intake continues to rise as saturated fat intake declines throughout 20th Century.

1948  National Heart Act created the National Heart Institute and the National Heart Council.

 1948  American Heart Association re-invented itself as a volunteer fundraising organization and hired a former bible salesman (Mr. Betts) and a PR agency to do fundraising. “Heart Night at the Copacabana” was attended by movie stars and Hollywood celebrities.

1949  American Heart Association raises $3 million dollars.

1949  Arterioslcerosis is added to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), causing a sharp increase in reported deaths from heart disease - creating at least the appearance of a heart disease epidemic.

1949  Pasteurized milk is mandatory. During World War II, tainted milk produced by inexperienced replacement creamery workers killed a number of people. The government blamed raw milk; not the replacement workers (and not the dislocations of war). Pasteurization kills the enzymes that make it easier to absorb the proteins in milk and destroys many other key nutrients, including Vitamin B-12.

1950 Using a newly invented one-of-a-kind centrifuge, University of California medical scientist John Gofman discovered several fat-like substances circulating in the blood, including LDL and VLDL. At this time – 60 years ago – he reported that total cholesterol (TC) was a “dangerously poor predictor” of heart disease.

 1951  Ancel Keys, professor, University of Minnesota, attends a conference in Rome on nutrition and disease and learns that heart disease was rare in some Mediterranean populations who consumed a lower fat diet. He noted, too, that the Japanese had low fat diets and low rates of heart disease. He hypothesized from these observations that fat was the cause of heart disease.

1951  The Practise of Endocrinology, a textbook published by seven prominent British clinicians. The weight loss recommendations were almost identical to Banting’s (see 1863). Foods to be avoided:  Bread and everything else made with flour; cereals, including breakfast cereals and milk puddings; potatoes and all other root vegetables; foods containing sugar and all sweets.

1953  Ancel Keys, convinced that dietary fat is the cause of heart disease, published his Six Country Analysis, suggesting an association between dietary fat and mortality from heart disease. Critics pointed out that Keys had data for 22 countries, but selected data from just 6. (As an example, Keys excluded France, a country with a high fat diet and low rates of heart disease.) Keys selected data – he cheated!

 1955  President Eisenhower suffers a first heart attack at age 64. He was put on a highly publicized low fat, low cholesterol diet. Over the next six weeks, twice daily press conferences were held on the president’s condition. His total cholesterol at the time of the attack was 165 ml/dl. Eisenhower was ordered to eat dry toast and Sanka for breakfast and eat only 1 egg per week. His cholesterol began to climb on a low fat, low cholesterol diet until it reached 259 the day he left office. Eisenhower had several more heart attacks and eventually died of heart disease.

 1955  John Gofman reported that carbohydrates elevate VLDL – the lipoprotein that transports blood fats (triglycerides) made in the liver from carbohydrates. Gofman wrote, “Restricting carbohydrates would lower VLDL.” Excess carbs = elevated triglycerides = more VLDL = increased risk of heart disease.

1956  American Heart Association (AHA) conducts a nationwide fundraiser on all three TV networks urging Americans to reduce their intake of total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. AHA was recommending “heart-healthy” margarine, corn oil, breakfast cereal, and skim milk – the same diet President Eisenhower was unhappily coping with.

1956  John Gofman reports that the majority of people with heart disease had elevated triglycerides (TG) and depressed HDL – not “high cholesterol.” Gofman blamed heart disease on “Carbohydrate Induced Lipemia.” His research conflicted with American Heart Association fundraising and was completely disregarded by the powers that be.

 1957  Hilde Bruch, the foremost authority on childhood obesity wrote:  “The great progress in dietary control of obesity was the recognition that meat was not fat-producing; but that it was bread and sweets which lead to obesity.”

1957  Margarine outsold butter for the first time. Per capita consumption of margarine had grown to 9 pounds. For decades, margarine has been a significant source of trans fats.  While butter is a good source of infection-fighting Vitamin A, margarine has none. Margarine. vegetable shortening, and vegetable cooking oils contain excess omega 6 linoleic acid. If there’s a fat of mass destruction – unsafe at any meal – this is it. Excess omega 6 causes injury and inflammation in the tissues of the body.

1960  Blood test for insulin developed.

 1960  Jack La Lanne was America’s only fitness guru! Obesity is not a public health issue. Revenue in the health club industry:  $200 million. When exercise was just having fun (not an obsession), obesity was not a public health issue.

1961  Exciting stuff! American Heart Association raised $35 million dollars and officially adopts AHA board member Ancel Keys’ low fat diet. In January 1961, the same month a sickly Eisenhower leaves office, Keys made the cover of Time Magazine. From now on, the media will amplify the low fat = good health mantra.

1961  Framingham Heart Study (data from five years). Men under 50 with elevated cholesterol were at greater risk of  heart disease. However, this group of vulnerable middle-aged men were also more likely to smoke, be overweight, and not exercise – the famous Framingham “risk factors” and elevated cholesterol was at the top of the list. Also, these men had high blood sugar, an association entirely missed. And these were associations – not cause and effect. In Framingham, once men reached age 50 – the age when risk of heart attack increases – there was no association between elevated cholesterol and heart disease. This latter finding was greeted with silence by U.S. cardiology.

1961 Pete Ahrens of Rockefeller University and Margaret Albrink of Yale reported that elevated triglycerides were associated with increased risk of heart disease and that low fat, high carbohydrate diets elevated triglycerides. Carbs – not fat – increased the risk of heart disease.

 1966  Jeremiah Stamler, Northwestern University professor, AHA board member, and Ancel Keys’ supporter, promotes the switch to vegetable fats in his self-help book, Your Heart Has Nine Lives, funded by the makers of Mazola Corn Oil and Fleissmann’s Margarine.

1967  In the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Peter Kuo, University of Pennsylvania, reported that of 286 atherosclerosis patients who had been referred to him, 90 percent had elevated triglycerides. But this and all other research that challenged “the Gospel according to Keys” was disregarded by the Diet Heart proponents.

1970  American Heart Association’s anti-fat guidelines now extend to children and pregnant women. As a consequence, the federal government’s WIC program – food assistance to women with infant children – only allows skim or nonfat milk to children over age 2 – and all the sugary juice and sugary cereal they can eat!

1970  Margaret Albrink, Peter Kuo, Lars Carlson, and Joseph Goldstein reported that elevated triglycerides (TG) were more common in heart disease patients than cholesterol. They confirmed that the majority of people with heart disease have what Gofman called “Carbohydrate Induced Lipemia.”

1971  Best selling anti-meat Diet for a Small Planet is published – Francis Moore Lappe’s argument for vegetarianism in order to feed the world’s poor. During the post-Viet Nam 1970s, it was suggested that Americans feel guilty about having an abundance of good healthy food to eat and increasingly red meat and saturated fat were blamed for just about everything.

 1972  After prescribing his diet to patients for 10 years, Dr. Robert C. Atkins publishes Diet Revolution, advocating a high fat diet for weight loss. Atkins sells a million copies in 6 months. Atkins first learned about the value of a high fat diet for weight loss in an article authored by Dr. Alfred Pennington in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

1973  American Medical Association (AMA) attacks Dr. Atkins calling his high fat diet a “dangerous fraud.” Atkins defends himself before a congressional committee – laughing all the way to the bank!

1974  Framingham Heart Study (24 years). Men with cholesterol levels below 190 mg/dl were three times more likely to get colon cancer as men with cholesterol over 220 mg/dl. In Framingham, there was a strong association between low cholesterol and premature death. Also, there was no relationship between elevated cholesterol and sudden death.

 1976  FDA gives GRAS status (generally regarded as safe) to hydrogenated soybean oil – even though lipid biochemist Mary Enig, PhD, warned the government that  – among their many dangers – trans fats interfere with insulin receptors on cell membranes and thereby increase the risk of diabetes. (It wasn’t until 2005 that the Dietary Guidelines weakly cautioned Americans to “limit trans fatty acids” by lumping trans with saturated fat into a new scientifically meaningless category called “Bad Fat.”

1976  Nathan Pritikin opens his first “low fat” Longevity Center. One attendee is pudgy U.S. Senator George McGovern (Democrat, SD). Although he dropped out of the Pritikin program, Senator McGovern was convinced that fat made us fat and was responsible for “killer diseases” like cancer and heart disease. (Nathan Pritikin committed suicide years later when his low fat diet failed to protect him from leukemia.)

 1976  Senator George McGovern’s bipartisan, extra legislative Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs conducts 2 days of contentious hearings on “Diet and Killer Diseases.” Staffers are lawyers and ex-journalists without scientific training. In Good Calories, Bad Calories, Gary Taubes reports that McGovern and his staff went into the hearings strongly biased in favor of Keys’ anti-fat hypothesis.

 1977  “All hell broke loose!” in Washington DC after the proposed guidelines were released. Major players -  like the American Medical Association – and scientists in federal government agencies were aghast at what McGovern and his staff of non-scientists had come up with. At this juncture, McGovern was forced to schedule six additional hearings.

1978  After conducting six additional hearings, McGovern’s Senate Select Committee issues the final version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. With very few changes, for the first time, an agency of the U.S. federal government is telling the American people to eat less fat. Nick Mottern, a vegetarian, whose heroes included Ancel Keys and Jeremiah Stamler, was given the exclusive task of writing the first ever Dietary Goals for the United States.

 1978  High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) enters the sweetener market. By 1985, 50 percent of the sweetener consumed by Americans was HFCS. In combination, HFCS and white sugar create a metabolic traffic jam in the liver, resulting in both greater insulin production and insulin resistance at the same time. Not good.

1980  Obesity levels in the US had remained between 12  to 14 percent from 1960 to 1980. After 1980 – and especially after 1990 – obesity grew dramatically. Today all 50 states have obesity rates over 20 percent.

1980  In spite of the considerable controversy over the McGovern Committee findings, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the official first ever low fat Dietary Guidelines for Americans. In bold face on the cover:  “EAT LESS FAT, SATURATED FAT, AND CHOLESTEROL.” Key’s still unproven hypothesis that dietary fat was the cause of heart disease had now become the “Cornerstone of U.S. nutrition policy” and remains so to this day.

1982  Disappointing results in the National Institutes of Health MRFIT study. Participants eating the low fat, high carbohydrate vegetable fat diet had more deaths than the “usual care” group left to their own devices. Two years after the passage of low fat Dietary Guidelines, a major study fails to prove that low fat diets were safe or effective.

1984  More disappointing results in the NIH sponsored Coronary Primary Prevention Trial (CPPT). But after tweaking the statistics, study director Basil Rifkind declared victory and asserted that the federal government had definitive proof that lowering cholesterol and fat would reduce the risk of heart disease. Many reputable scientists questioned the methodology, “relative risk” statistics, and skewed results of the study, but this failed trial and a subsequent NIH “Consensus Conference” in 1984 ended any further public debate.

1984  Anthony Gotto, president, American Heart Association, said, “If everyone went ahead with cholesterol-lowering, we will conquer atherosclerosis by the year 2000.” But since the year 2000, five new specialty heart hospitals costing more than $250 million dollars have been built just in Minneapolis and St Paul. Although millions of people take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, the incidence of heart disease does not go down as promised.

1986  Without congressional or executive oversight, the National Institutes of Health and the private doctors of the American Heart Association establish the National Cholesterol Education Program. Guidelines are issued the following year. For the first time blood cholesterol over 200 mg/dl is treated as a disease. Cereal companies, vegetable oil interests, and the American Medical Association eagerly join the long-awaited “War on Cholesterol.”

 1986  The FDA says there is “no conclusive evidence” that sugar causes chronic disease. Since that time, the government has not funded any studies to test the hypothesis. According to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, up to 25 percent of our calories can be consumed as sugar. No nutrients – no fiber – no problem!

 1986  The same year the U.S. declared “War on Cholesterol,” Japanese physicians warn that low blood cholesterol levels are strongly associated with strokes, the number one cause of death in Japan. As the percentage of fat in the Japanese diet increased after WWII, the incidence of deadly strokes declined.

1987  Another ignored finding in the Framingham Heart Study:  “Framingham residents whose cholesterol levels declined over the first 14 years were more likely to die prematurely of heart disease and cancer than those whose cholesterol remained the same or increased.” Isn’t this worth knowing?

1987  Mevacor, the first cholesterol-lowering statin drug, was approved in record time. Statin drugs reduce the liver’s production of both both cholesterol, Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), and other substances. The muscles and heart use the most CoQ10. It isn’t surprising then that the incidence of congestive heart failure has more than doubled since 1987. (Merck has a patent on combining CoQ10 with a statin, but they have been sitting on it for decades.)

Michael Jacobson, founder of Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), was an early and vociferous proponent of Americans switching from natural saturated fat – like coconut – to unhealthy hydrogenated soybean oil.

1988  After a heart attack at age 43, billionaire Phil Sokolof launched full page newspaper ads across the country containing scathing anti-tropical fat rhetoric against coconut and palm oil. In unison, the Center for Science in the Public Interest – a supported of hydrogenated vegetable fat -  launches an “Anti-Saturated Fat” attack against coconut oil in movie theater popcorn. As a direct result of these campaigns,  hydrogenated trans fat replaces healthy natural saturated fat in the U.S. food supply.

1988 Surgeon General’s Report on Nutrition and Health is released:  “Highest priority is given to reducing fat intake.”

1988  After 20 years researching carbohydrate metabolism, Gerald Reavan, MD, University of California, announces his discovery of “Syndrome X,” now referred to as Metabolic Syndrome or diabetes-related heart disease. Syndrome X is a cluster of abnormalities, including high blood sugar, high insulin levels, elevated triglycerides, and depressed protective HDL. In his book Syndrome X, Dr. Reaven said the culprit in heart disease is excess sugar and excess easily-digested carbohydrates - not red meat.

 1990  According to the CDC in Atlanta, type II diabetes took off like a “runaway train” around 1990. In the year 2000, the CDC reported that the lifetime risk of diabetes is now 1 in 3. Because 80 percent of diabetics die of heart disease, we can expect a sharp increase in coronary heart disease and slow, suffocating heart failure during the next 2 decades. (Heart failure is already the #1 Medicare expenditure.)

Comparing the nation’s obesity epidemic to “a house on fire,” Harvard’s Walter Willett has taken aim at sugar-sweetened beverages.

1999  At the 14 year point in the Harvard Nurses Study, 3,000 nurses had developed cancer. According to study leader Walter Willett, the less fat the nurses ate the greater their risk of cancer. Willett said, “Saturated fat seems to be protective…” Even though dietary fat is exonerated, the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association continue to blame red meat and saturated fat for cancer – not sugar or excess carbohydrates.

2000  Soybean oil has 70 percent of the edible fat market in the U.S. Nutritious lard consumption:  Less than 1 pound per capita.

2000  Sugar consumption in the US reaches 150 pounds per capita – most of it high fructose corn syrup.

2000  Butter consumption in the US goes below 4 pounds per capita.

2000  Well over $1 billion has been spent on trials focusing on lowering LDL cholesterol. Little or no money in comparison has been spent researching the obvious dangers of added sugars and excess highly processed omega-6 industrial seed oils.

2002 What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie? – Gary Taubes’ New York Times magazine cover story (July 07, 2002) signaled that after three decades low-fat could be on its way out. Taubes pointed out that the science behind low fat was never proven and was actually based on “a leap of faith”

2003  McGill University School of Medicine study found “enlarged hearts among obese teenagers, a strong predictor of serious heart problems in the future.”  The indicators of heart disease in children included insulin resistance, elevated triglycerides, and depressed levels of beneficial HDL.

2005 More than 30 percent of all Americans are clinically obese and revenue from the health club industry reaches $16 billion. Nearly 40 million Americans belong to health clubs. The exercise boom fails to curb obesity, diabetes, or the incidence of heart disease. Science writer Gary Taubes makes a compelling argument that exercise helps you “work up an appetite.”

2005  Butter is making a comeback! For the first time since 1957, butter outsells margarine.

2008  With the 2010 Dietary Guideline revision process in their gun sights, the Corn Growers Association spends $20 to $30 million on an 18 month TV ad campaign “targeting mothers” with the reassuring message that HFCS is perfectly okay for toddlers and children – young citizens whose lifetime risk of diabetes is 1 in 3.

2009  In the first six months of the year, the health care industry spent $263 million lobbying to protect their “health care” income. According to the October 7, 2009 USA Today, hospitals, doctors groups, device makers, and other trade groups are fighting hard to “protect their Fiefdoms.”

2010  The 2010 Dietary Guidelines continued their low fat = good health mantra. Unlike the media intensity over “health care reform,” the 13-member Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) conducted its business behind closed doors. Though the DGAC is charged with basing their revision on the “Preponderance of the scientific and medical evidence,” the evidence in favor of a higher fat diet was simply ignored.

2013  In 2013 in Dallas, the American Heart Association is inviting 33,000 cardiac experts – professionals who continue to follow the low fat Gospel according to Keys - to their grand annual conference. The city of Dallas has agreed to build a lavish new 1,100 bed “Four Star” hotel. A rightfully proud Mr. Phillip Jones, president and CEO of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the event will generate an estimated $86 million for the city of Dallas. No surprise here. The AHA is a fundraising superstar with assets over $1 billion. The CEO earns over $500,000 annually - a tidy sum for the head cop of the low fat Dietary Guidelines.

2015  You guessed it; another chance to revise (or gut) the low fat Dietary Guidelines; however, because the U.S. “Disease Management Monopoly” is getting richer – a result of (1) an aging population and (2) a sharply higher incidence of chronic disease – don’t expect a return to America’s wholesome, higher fat whole foods diet. Their best advice to date:  eat off a smaller plate.

2. Dietary cholesterol is poorly absorbed – 50 percent at best (Mary Enig, PhD; Michael I. Gurr, PhD). According to these lipid biochemists, the more cholesterol you eat the less cholesterol you absorb. Since our livers synthesize between 1200-1800 mg of cholesterol daily, why is there any limit on dietary cholesterol in the Dietary Guidelines?

3. In 1997, retired from the University of Minnesota, Ancel Keys, American Heart Association board member – father of the low fat diet – said:  “Cholesterol in food has no affect on cholesterol in blood and we’ve known that all along.” Keys recanted but no one was listening to him anymore…

4. Because cholesterol is a precursor to stress hormones, stress can elevate blood cholesterol. When the stress is over, cholesterol will leave the blood and go back to the liver and other tissues. Frequent fluctuations of blood cholesterol due to fear, stress, weather, activity and age represent normal body functioning – not a disease to fight with drugs.

“Cholesterol in food has no affect on cholesterol in blood and we’ve known that all along.”

5. All federal Dietary Guidelines since 1980 discuss cholesterol as something to fear. Since cholesterol is found in every cell in our bodies and is a precursor to Vitamin D and all adrenal and sex hormones, why wouldn’t the 2010 Dietary Guidelines discuss the essential nature of cholesterol instead?

6. There is no such thing as “good” or “bad” cholesterol – descriptions cooked up to sell cholesterol-lowering drugs. Referred to as bad, LDL is not cholesterol and LDL is not bad. LDL is a lipoprotein that delivers cholesterol to the 70 trillion cells in our bodies. (Only oxidized cholesterol is bad. Chronic elevated blood sugar oxidizes LDL and other blood factors such as hemoglobin.)

7. LDL – Low Density Lipoprotein – is not one thing. There are LDL sub-factions (such as LDL subclass A and subclass B). Knowing your Triglyceride level (TG) and understanding lipoprotein sub-fractions is much more important in preventing and reversing heart disease than measuring total cholesterol (TC). Ask your doctor to test for LDL sub-fractions and stop scaring you about your total cholesterol number.

8. The statement “saturated fat raises blood cholesterol” is a false and misleading oversimplification. Saturated fat intake and blood cholesterol levels are not in a teeter-totter relationship. There are many different types of saturated fat and many reasons why blood cholesterol rises and falls.

Butter fat or cream is the most complex food fat of all – containing 12 different fatty acids including 8 different saturated fats.

9. Fat in food is always a combination of saturated and unsaturated fat. Butter, as an example, contains 8 different saturated fats. One of them, stearic acid, a common saturated fat found in many foods, promotes higher levels of HDL, a lipoprotein associated with protection from heart disease. (Michael I. Gurr, lipid biochemist; Dr. Eric Rimm, Harvard, member, 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.)

10. Wouldn’t recommending that Americans eat a variety of healthy natural fats be more helpful than labeling fats “good or bad” depending on their degree of saturation? Besides, “saturated” means chemically stable – nothing else. Chemically stable saturated fat represents 50 percent or more of the fat found in our 70 trillion cell membranes.

11. During the first meeting of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, Harvard’s Dr. Eric Rimm testified that he is concerned about “the artificial limit on fat” in the Dietary Guidelines. He mentioned that “he could be thrown off the stage for saying this.” No – he wasn’t thrown off the stage – he was simply ignored!

Dr. Eric B. Rimm, Harvard wasn’t thrown off the stage – he was simply ignored!

12. Anything that promotes HDL (such as natural dietary fat) puts downward pressure on triglycerides (TG) – blood fats made in the liver from excess carbohydrates. Elevated TG is associated with increased risk of heart disease. Saturated fats like stearic acid are heart-healthy in that they lower the ratio of TG to HDL.

13. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines should say:  Eating beef – especially from the pasture – and enjoying some dark chocolate – from the rain forest – provides saturated stearic acid and monounsaturated oleic acid – natural healthy fats that protect you from heart disease.

14. The primary dietary cause of diabetes and heart disease is the excess carbohydrates in our diet, especially sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and the easily-digested carbohydrates found in grain and grain products. Since 1980, Americans are consuming at least 400 additional carbohydrate calories a day – much of it sugar and corn syrup.

15. Carbohydrates raise blood sugar and insulin levels = fats do not. Given the fact that we are facing an unprecedented diabetes epidemic, why is the role of excess carbs in promoting obesity and diabetes not addressed in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines?  Why is the limit on added sugars a whopping 25 percent of calories?

16. Boxed breakfast cereals raise blood sugar rapidly, but there is no warning about blood-sugar-raising foods in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. Since blood sugar has a narrow healthy range (and cholesterol in blood has a wide normal range), why is elevated blood sugar not mentioned in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines?

17. By weight, all children’s breakfast cereals are 30 to 50 percent sugar. If the federal government is concerned about reducing the incidence of obesity and diabetes in children, why isn’t there a warning to parents about blood-sugar-raising foods in the Dietary Guidelines, especially those that are being marketed to children?

18. Why wasn’t sugar and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) singled out in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. Dr. Joanne Slavin, self appointed as Carbohydrate Chair, defended the use of HFCS by saying “a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.” Her testimony (Meeting 1) suggests she is not concerned about excess sugar and high fructose corn syrup in the American diet. She works for the University of Minnesota, and her department at the U of M receives substantial financial support from Cargill and General Mills.  Was her recommendation not to single out high fructose corn syrup a conflict of interest as the expense of the 75 million Americans who are diabetic or pre-diabetic?

Was Professor Slavin’s recommendation not to single out high fructose corn syrup a conflict of interest as the expense of the 75 million Americans who are diabetic or pre-diabetic? (The Cargill Building at the University of Minnesota Nutrition School.)

19. Metabolic Syndrome is now considered a primary risk factor for coronary heart disease. Metabolic Syndrome includes elevated blood sugar, hyperinsulinism, high triglycerides, low HDL and is strongly associated with high carbohydrate diets. Why isn’t Metabolic Syndrome specifically discussed in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines? Will Metabolic Syndrome be discussed in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines?

20. A high carbohydrate diet is associated with elevated triglycerides (TG) and depressed HDL. Depressed HDL is a potent risk factor for coronary heart disease. A Harvard study verified that people with the highest TG and the lowest HDL (top quartile) were 16 times more likely to die of heart disease than people with the lowest TG and highest HDL.

Gary Taubes, award-winning science writer and author of Good Calories, Bad Calories

21. Blood-sugar-raising carbohydrates have a direct and immediate effect on blood sugar and insulin levels and, in the words of science writer Gary Taubes, “on the disruption of the entire harmonic ensemble of the human body.” Isn’t this worth knowing?

22. High insulin levels (hyperinsulinism) explain why Americans have fattened. Insulin is the fat storage hormone. When insulin levels are elevated – either chronically or after a meal – we make and store fat and lock it up in adipose tissue. When fat is locked up, it is not available as a fuel to the trillions of cells in the body. Hunger is the result.

23. By stimulating insulin levels, carbohydrates make us hungry and fat. High circulating insulin – in response to excess dietary carbohydrates – is the root cause of weight gain, obesity, diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, and coronary heart disease – which leads to congestive heart failure.

24. The incidence of slow, suffocating heart failure has doubled since 1987 – the year that cholesterol-lowering statin drugs were approved in record time. Heart failure is now the Number One Medicare expenditure – the Number One reason anyone age 65 or older is in the hospital.

25. According to the CDC in Atlanta, 1 in 3 children born today will become diabetics and 80 percent of diabetics die of heart disease. We have both an expanding population and a steadily increasing incidence of diabetes and heart disease. Americans need relief. How bad do things have to get before we revise the U.S. Dietary Guidelines in favor of a higher fat whole foods carbohydrate-restricted diet?

Yet, a careful reading of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee meeting transcripts (Meeting 1, Day 2), October 31, 2008, reveals a completely different scientific assessment about dietary fats than was published in the DGAC report issued on June 16.

On October 31, 2008, DGAC member Dr. Eric B. Rimm, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, questioned what he called the “artificial limit” on dietary fat in the U.S. Dietary Guidelines.

From the transcripts located at:  www.cnpp.usda.gov/DGAs2010-Meeting1.htm

Dr. Rimm:  “I wanted to make a radical point, one for which I’ll probably get kicked off the stage, but the whole issue of total fat and the 20 to 35 percent of calories from fat is one that has troubled me…”

Dr. Rimm:  I think if you look at the science, there is actually no good human data to suggest that higher fat diets lead to obesity. If anything, higher fat diets, at 35 to 40 percent, lead to lower triglycerides because it’s a lower carbohydrate intake.

Dr. Rimm:  “I am not saying that at this point we should just say everybody eat as much fat as we want, but I think there is the dogma that low-fat diets are beneficial, and you can go in the grocery store and see a lot of low-fat foods that are essentially just high in carbohydrate, highly processed sugars.”

Dr. Rimm:  “… And, if you look at some new data that has come out from dietary patterns among people in Greece or European countries, in fact they don’t have higher rates of heart disease, yet they have healthy fats …”

Dr. Walter Willet

Dr. Walter C. Willett, Chairman, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, in an interview with Melissa Healy in the Los Angeles Times on June 28, 2010, agreed with his Harvard associate, Dr. Eric Rimm.

Referring to the proposed 2010 Dietary Guidelines, Dr. Willett said: “Shortcomings of the report include the percentage of total fat is still recommended to be less than 35% of calories…”

“The best available evidence demonstrates that percent of calories from fat in a diet has no bearing on weight loss – a point the dietary guidelines committee acknowledges. It makes no sense to base the dietary guidelines on an outdated recommendation.”

Only carbs elevate blood sugar, especially sugary, floury products and processed grains. How, can federal guidelines that do not discuss blood-sugar-raising-foods – a marker for diabetes – address the diabetes epidemic? And don’t expect any new specific warnings about sugar.

During the 2010 deliberations, Carbohydrate Chair Professor Slavin, University of Minnesota Nutrition School, testified that even though sugar has no nutritional value, it is perfectly okay to consume up to 25 percent of our calories as sugar.
Yes, that’s right – 25 percent!

Nor do the 2010 Dietary Guidelines warn Americans away from consuming high fructose corn syrup – now 10 to 20 percent of American calories. Why? Because Professor Slavin testified that high fructose corn syrup and white sugar are no different than any other calorie – “a calorie is calorie is a calorie!”

Would Mike Huckabee agree that “all calories are the same?” A recent Washington Post article noted: “The Republican Party’s resident obesity authority Mike Huckabee famously shed more than 100 pounds in part by cutting out processed sugar and white flour.”

Like all guidelines since 1980, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines do not warn us away from processed sugar and white flour,” nor will they grade those carbohydrates ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ During DGAC meeting one, October 2008, Professor Slavin testified that grading carbs would be “too controversial” and “served no purpose.”

Too controversial to whom? To the millions of people who are pre-diabetic or or too controversial to corn-syrup-maker Cargill and cereal-maker General Mills, big Minnesota-based food companies that have donated millions of dollars to Joanne Slavin’s employer – the Nutrition Department at the University of Minnesota?

Professor Slavin quickly dismissed any discussion about the Glycemic Index – in effect a system that rates the blood sugar raising effect of carbohydrate foods. Most commercial boxed breakfast cereals raise blood sugar – they have a high glycemic value. Is Professor Slavin’s tabling of any discussion about the Glycemic Index in conflict with the purpose of the guidelines themselves – to reduce chronic disease?

How did Professor Slavin get appointed to the 13-member committee?

According to the website of the International Food Information Council Foundation, the Foundation enjoys a public-private partnership with the registered dietitians at USDA. The Foundation is directly involved with USDA in appointing Dietary Guidelines Advisory Council members. Along with executives from Pepsi and Mars (Candy Bars), Trustees of the Foundation include a General Mills vice president.

If we follow the money, it sure looks like the International Food Information Council Foundation was able to pick one of their own – or is it someone they own – to be not only a member of the 2010 DGAC committee but the Carbohydrate Chair as well!

Yes, the high carb dice were loaded before the 2010 DGAC deliberations began – almost guaranteeing a continued increase in the most expensive chronic disease we now face:  Type II Diabetes.

       “Wakeup America” – There’s nothin’ Lucky about Lucky Charms!

           Reader’s Digest: High Fat Diet is Best!