{"id":33002,"date":"2014-12-17T13:38:34","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T12:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=33002"},"modified":"2014-12-17T13:38:34","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T12:38:34","slug":"the-bmj-today-why-diets-dont-work-and-the-rehabilitation-of-saturated-fat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/12\/17\/the-bmj-today-why-diets-dont-work-and-the-rehabilitation-of-saturated-fat\/","title":{"rendered":"The BMJ Today: Why diets don’t work and the rehabilitation of saturated fat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Depending on your world view, our obsession with food at Christmas (witness packed supermarket aisles, and the acres of menu ideas churned out by newspapers) is either a glorious, well deserved indulgence or evidence of an obscene festival of gluttony.<\/p>\n

Come January many of us will have embarked on body sculpting diets. Before you do, read Richard Smith\u2019s \u201cAre some diets \u2018mass murder<\/a>,\u201d for which the former BMJ<\/em> editor ploughed through five books on diet and some of the key studies. His conclusion? That from low fat to carb-free, many diets are based on fragile science, and the long term results may be terrible.<\/p>\n

This was sobering for me who, along with my husband and a group of friends, has been a rather smug devotee of the fashionable, intermittent fasting \u201c5:2\u201d diet for the last 18 months. The diet requires you to restrict your diet to a daily 500 calories for two days a week, the reward for which is eating like a queen (at least a fairly sensible one) for the remaining five. \u201cAre you on a \u20185\u2019 or a \u20182\u2019 day?\u201d has become an all too common refrain in my life.<\/p>\n

Based on his reading, Smith urges us to read Nina Teicholz\u2019s \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d book The Big Fat Surprise<\/em>, whose subtitle is \u201cWhy butter, meat, and cheese belong to a healthy diet.\u201d Teicholz traces how the dominant 1970s hypothesis that saturated fat is the cause of cardiovascular disease has largely been demolished over the last decade.<\/p>\n

It also shows how \u201coverenthusiastic scientists, poor science, massive conflicts of interest, and politically driven policy makers can make deeply damaging mistakes,\u201d writes Smith. The gusto with which policy makers take up some of these diets is akin to uncontrolled experiments on large populations. \u201cIt\u2019s surely time for better science and for humility among experts,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n

If you are an international reader of thebmj.com<\/a> do vote in the online poll: Are some diets mass murder?<\/p>\n

For some entertaining science, read the Australian paper When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go<\/a>? Most people think the matter is converted into energy but the truth is we breathe most of it out. Annemarie Walsh\u2019s linked animated film is a fantastic 30 second primer on this paper.<\/p>\n