The cry from the Food Police is that “Big Food” is making us fat and, of course, government must do something about it. Well, you may not be surprised to learn that, when it comes to the Food Police crusade against saturated fats, the science simply doesn’t hold up. Author Nina Teicholz explains in the Wall Street Journal.
“Saturated fat does not cause heart disease”—or so concluded a big study published in March in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. How could this be? The very cornerstone of dietary advice for generations has been that the saturated fats in butter, cheese and red meat should be avoided because they clog our arteries. For many diet-conscious Americans, it is simply second nature to opt for chicken over sirloin, canola oil over butter.
The new study’s conclusion shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with modern nutritional science, however. The fact is, there has never been solid evidence for the idea that these fats cause disease. We only believe this to be the case because nutrition policy has been derailed over the past half-century by a mixture of personal ambition, bad science, politics and bias.
Moral of the story: be very wary of “science” produced to support movements that are more based in politics rather than empirical evidence — movements that very often involve growing government and giving government more power over our lives.
