Why Was Fat Demonized in the United States?
Majid Ali, M.D.
Most American doctors are backing off from demonizing fats as they did for about seventy years. One would expect that would be very interested in the question: Why was fat demonized in the United States in the first place? They are not. Why?
Before I answer this question, the following quotes from Steven Nissen, chairman of the departments of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, as quoted by The New York Times of Feb. 15, 2015:
“There’s no solid science around the low-fat diet even though it’s widely advocated…You don’t have to reduce fat in the diet to be healthy and low-fat diet is not inherently healthy.”
It is noteworthy that Dr. Nissen has never published a paper in which reported success in reversing any chronic disease by nutritional therapy. So one wonders what might be his credentials for expressing opinion on relationship between diet and health.
So, why was fat demonized in the United States? My simple answer: to sell cholesterol drugs. Without demonizing fats, how could drug sellers persuade the so-called medical thought leaders to promote their drugs? I suggest readers interested in molecular biology of cholesterol and a deeper understanding of the real causes of heart attacks, I suggest the free Dr. Ali’s Cholesterol Course.
