Low fat diets are BAD for us, scientists say

Cutting back on butter, cream, cheese and other fatty foods is fuelling the obesity epidemic with disastrous consequences for health, experts have warned.

In a damning report that accuses major public health bodies of colluding with the food industry, the National Obesity Forum and the Public Health Collaboration said most of what we are told about healthy eating is wrong.

The report's authors say the epidemic's roots lie in the modern-day obsession with low-fat diets, while snacking between meals is making people fat.

And their highly controversial report  - which has been slammed by many other experts for being 'irresponsible' - cites studies which show a higher-fat, lower-carb diet to be superior.

It states: 'Eating a diet rich in full-fat dairy – such as cheese, milk and yoghurt – can actually lower the chance of obesity.

'The most natural and nutritious foods available – meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, olives, avocados – all contain saturated fat.'

Currently, the Government says people in the UK eat too much saturated fat.

It says the average man should eat no more than 30g of saturated fat a day, while the average woman should eat no more than 20g a day.

A diet high in saturated fat can increase levels of 'bad cholesterol' in the blood, raising the risk of heart disease.

But recently, that risk has been disputed.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra said saturated fat has been 'demonised for decades' and there is no evidence it is linked with heart disease.

In fact, we should be eating more saturated fat to protect our hearts, he said.

He says it is sugar, not fat, which was causing so many of society's health problems.

Sugar causes a rise in blood sugar levels, which triggers a spike in insulin - the hormone which clears glucose from the blood.

But insulin is a storage hormone, encouraging extra calories to be laid down in the body as fat.

Therefore sugar and carbohydrates like white bread, pasta, rice and potatoes are fueling the obesity epidemic, he said. 

Calling for a 'major overhaul' of dietary guidelines, today's report claims:

* Processed foods labelled 'low fat', 'lite', 'low cholesterol' or 'proven to lower cholesterol' should be avoided at all costs 

* People with type 2 diabetes should eat a fat-rich diet rather than one based on carbohydrates.

* Sugar should be avoided and we should stop counting calories. 

* The idea that exercise can help you 'outrun a bad diet' is a myth.

* Instead, a diet low in refined carbohydrates but high in healthy fats is 'an effective and safe approach for preventing weight gain and aiding weight loss', and cuts the risk of heart disease.

* The report's authors call for a return to 'whole foods' such as meat, fish and dairy, as well as high fat healthy foods including avocados, arguing that 'eating fat does not make you fat'.

* Eating a diet rich in full fat dairy - such as cheese, milk and yoghurt - can actually lower the chance of obesity.

* Saturated fat does not cause heart disease, while full fat diary can actually protect the heart.

It states: 'The most natural and nutritious foods available - meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, olive, avocados - all contain saturated fat. 

'The continued demonisation of omnipresent natural fat drives people away from highly nourishing, wholesome and health promoting foods.'

Professor David Haslam, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said: 'As a clinician, treating patients all day every day, I quickly realised guidelines from on high, suggesting high carbohydrate, low fat diets were the universal panacea, were deeply flawed.

'Current efforts have failed - the proof being that obesity levels are higher than they have ever been, and show no chance of reducing despite the best efforts of Government and scientists.' 

Co-author of the report, Aseem Malhotra, is a founding member of the Public Health Collaboration – a charity made up of dietitians, scientists and doctors.

He said promoting low-fat foods was 'perhaps the biggest mistake in modern medical history resulting in devastating consequences for public health'. 

'Sadly this unhelpful advice continues to be perpetuated. 

'The current Eatwell guide from Public Health England is in my view more like a metabolic timebomb than a dietary pattern conducive for good health. 

'We must urgently change the message to the public to reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes.

'Eat fat to get slim, don't fear fat, fat is your friend. It's now truly time to bring back the fat.'

Professor Iain Broom, from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, said in agreement: 'The continuation of a food policy recommending high carbohydrate, low fat, low calorie intakes as 'healthy eating' is fatally flawed.

'Our populations for almost 40 years, have been subjected to an uncontrolled global experiment that has gone drastically wrong.' 

However the report has caused a huge backlash among the scientific community. 

The controversial claims have been heavily criticised by other experts who accused the report's authors of cherry picking evidence to suit their own arguments. 

Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Heath England, said:

'In the face of all the evidence, calling for people to eat more fat, cut out carbs and ignore calories is irresponsible. 

'Unlike this opinion piece, our independent experts review all the available evidence - often thousands of scientific papers - run full-scale consultations and go to great lengths to ensure no bias. 

'International health organisations agree that too much saturated fat raises cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease and obesity is caused by consistently consuming too many calories.'  

Professor Tom Sanders, of King's College London, said: 'The claim that eating fat doesn't make you fat is absurd. If you eat a lot of fat, you will get fat.'

And Professor John Wass, the Royal College of Physicians' special adviser on obesity, said there was 'good evidence that saturated fat increases cholesterol'.

He added: 'What is needed is a balanced diet, regular physical activity and a normal healthy weight. To quote selective studies risks misleading the public.'

Professor Simon Capewell, from the Faculty of Public Health, added: 'We fully support Public Health England's new guidance on a healthy diet. Their advice reflects evidence-based science that we can all trust. It was not influenced by industry.

'By contrast, the report from the National Obesity Forum is not peer reviewed. 

'Furthermore, it does not it indicate who wrote it or how is was funded. That is worrying.'  

Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said: 'This report is full of ideas and opinion, however it does not offer the robust and comprehensive review of evidence that would be required for the BHF, as the UK's largest heart research charity, to take it seriously.

'This country's obesity epidemic is not caused by poor dietary guidelines; it is that we are not meeting them.' 

The row comes just two months after a landmark report in The Lancet revealed more than one in ten men and one in seven women around the globe are now obese.

And the situation is only set to get worse, with experts predicting almost a fifth of us will fall into this category within a decade.

The alarming statistics were part of the world's biggest obesity study, which measured the height and weight of nearly 20 million adults.

It revealed there are currently 640 million obese people around the globe, comprising 266 million men and 375 million women.

Overall, the fattest men and women now live in China and the USA.

However the USA still has the highest number of severely obese men and women in the world.

In Britain, obesity rates are 28.4 per cent for women - the second highest in Europe behind only Malta – and 26.2 per cent for men, the worst in the continent.

And in a decade, it will be the fattest nation in Europe, with almost 40 per cent of adults obese.

Type 2 diabetes rates are soaring, fuelled by obesity, and the condition uses up a tenth of the NHS's budget. 

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