A new study comparing a low-carbohydrate diet with a low-fat diet found no important differences in weight loss or other important outcomes between the two diets. Some experts believe the result shows that the debate over the relative worth of these different diets has been overblown and confirms the view that calories count. Others say…
My Beef With The AHA’s Saturated Fat Recommendations
June 21, 2017 by 22 Comments
–We shouldn’t forget the unintended consequences of dietary recommendations. The American Heart Association’s position on saturated fat pretends to be science-based but is not, writes Gary Taubes, in a brilliant and wildly popular guest post published here on CardioBrief late last week. The AHA’s statement, which recommends that saturated fats be replaced with polyunsaturated…
Guest Post: Vegetable Oils, (Francis) Bacon, Bing Crosby, And The American Heart Association
June 16, 2017 by 26 Comments
–Gary Taubes responds to the AHA presidential advisory on dietary fats. Editor’s note: I was planning to write about the American Heart Association’s new statement about dietary fats so I asked Gary Taubes for a brief quote. Taubes, of course, is an investigative science and health journalist who has written three major books (Good Calories,…
Has Nutrition Science Been Poisoned?
March 9, 2017 by 9 Comments
–The inevitable weaknesses of observational and diet studies “Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition,” Adam Smith wrote more than 200 years ago. Unfortunately, it often seems as if the science of nutrition has itself been poisoned. Two recently published papers illustrate this problem. Nutrition and Mortality A good example of…
Top Cardiologist Blasts Nutrition Guidelines
February 27, 2017 by 15 Comments
–Salim Yusuf says new evidence fails to support many major diet recommendations. One of the world’s top cardiologists says that many of the major nutrition guidelines have no good basis in science. “I’m not a nutrition scientist and that may be an advantage because every week in the newspaper we read something is good for…
More Shots Fired in ‘Sugar War’
December 19, 2016 by 1 Comment
–Industry-sponsored study questions current guidelines on dietary sugar. Dietary guidelines relating to sugar— all of which recommend significant reductions in sugar intake— are based on weak evidence and are not trustworthy, according to a systematic review published in Annals of Internal Medicine. But an accompanying editorial points out that the systematic review is itself not…
Saturated Fats Linked To Heart Disease Once Again
November 27, 2016 by 10 Comments
–But critics say that observational studies can’t establish causal relationship. A prominent group of nutrition researchers have once again linked saturated fats to increased coronary heart disease. The new paper, published in BMJ, is the third paper in the past year to decry saturated fats. Along with the previous two papers, published in JACC and JAMA Internal…
Lunchroom Scandal At The AHA: Day Two Of Buttergate
November 15, 2016 by 5 Comments
–After a CardioBrief investigation the American Heart Association changes the lunchroom menu There is no better proof that journalism can change the world– both for the good and the bad– than Buttergate. Yesterday your intrepid reporter exposed the ongoing scandal of Buttergate taking place within the press lunchroom at the American Heart Association meeting in New…
Is The American Heart Association Trying To Kill Health Reporters?
November 14, 2016 by 4 Comments
The answer is no. The AHA is not trying to kill us. But its dietary advice is consistently confusing and occasionally wrong, and health reporters in New Orleans may end up as collateral damage. Just take a look at what’s being served in the press room at the big American Heart Association meeting going on now…
Calcium Levels and CV Risk: New Study Finds No Link
October 24, 2016 by 1 Comment
–But most agree dietary calcium is preferable to supplements A new review concludes that a high level of calcium intake, whether from food or supplements, is not linked to increased cardiovascular risk, as long as the total calcium intake remains below the tolerable upper level of intake (2,000-2,500 mg/day). The systematic review, published in Annals…
How Sweet: Sugar Industry Made Fat the Villain
September 13, 2016 by 3 Comments
–Harvard researchers received sugar industry money to write a NEJM review. Newly uncovered documents reveal that 50 years ago the sugar industry gave secret support to prominent Harvard researchers to write an influential series of articles in the New England Journal of Medicine that downplayed the negative effects of sugar. Instead, the articles shifted the blame…
Changes In Eskimo Diet Linked To Increase In Heart Disease
July 29, 2016 by 7 Comments
New paper explores the fascinating history of research into the Eskimo diet. The Eskimo diet and its effect on the heart has been a source of confusion and contention for decades. The observation that Eskimos, who traditionally consumed large amounts of saturated fat and small amounts of carbohydrates, had low rates of heart disease appeared…
You Say Potato, I Say Worthless Epidemiology
May 17, 2016 by 3 Comments
(Updated) –Observational study links potatoes to high blood pressure Depending on your position in the dietary wars, potatoes are now either a newly-confirmed nutritional villain or an innocent victim of overzealous and misapplied epidemiology. A new study, published in The BMJ, is the first to establish a direct link between potato consumption and blood pressure….
Noted Skeptic Calls For More Randomized Nutrition Trials
May 10, 2016 by 2 Comments
Defying conventional wisdom Ioannidis says we need more negative trials to clear away all our misconceptions about nutrition Defying conventional wisdom Ioannidis says we need more negative trials to clear away all our misconceptions about nutritionDefying conventional wisdom Ioannidis says we need more negative trials to clear away all our misconceptions about nutritionDefying conventional wisdom…
New Analysis Of Old Study Delivers Another Blow To Traditional Diet Advice
April 13, 2016 by 2 Comments
–Replacing saturated fat with vegetable oils lowered cholesterol but didn’t improve outcomes A new analysis from a long-forgotten study dating to the 1960s adds to mounting doubts over a cornerstone of dietary advice for more than 50 years: the demonization of saturated fat in the diet. Although in recent years the nutritional establishment has retreated…
Recipe For Disaster: The New US Dietary Guidelines
January 18, 2016 by 4 Comments
The science of nutrition is a disaster. For a variety of very good reasons it is nearly impossible to perform high quality, long term randomized controlled trials to provide satisfactory answers to most of the pressing questions of the day. But many experts are convinced they do know the answer to many of these questions….
New Analysis Finds Small But Significant Advantage For Low Carb Diets
October 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
A new meta-analysis finds that low-carb diets are more effective than low-fat diets in weight loss and reducing cardiovascular risk. The study finding suggests “that a low-carb diet should be the first line approach for weight management,” said the first author of the study, Jonathan Sackner-Bernstein. But the difference between the two dietary approaches was not…
BMJ Paper Criticizes Proposed US Dietary Guidelines
September 24, 2015 by 2 Comments
Once again experts are passionately disagreeing about the proper role of saturated fats and carbohydrates in the diet. The latest volley comes from a full-scale critique published in the BMJ of proposed new US dietary guidelines. The author of the critique, Nina Teicholz, is the author of The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat, & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet. In both the…
Study Questions Conventional Wisdom About Trans Fats
September 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Could a little trans fat found naturally in meat and dairy actually be protective? Amid the stormy debate over dietary recommendations regarding saturated fats and carbohydrates, there’s been one area of calm and consensus. Nearly everyone seems to have agreed that trans fats have no place in the diet. The FDA’s recent move to ban trans…
Weight Loss Programs: Slim Evidence And Poor Results
April 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
A new study concludes that some weight loss programs may be slightly better than other programs but that in the long run none of the programs have been able to show a substantial weight loss over a sustained period. For even the best programs, an editorialist writes, “weight loss is modest and likely below patients’…
No, An Apple A Day Won’t Keep The Doctor Away
March 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
No, an apple a day does not appear to keep the doctor away. But, a new study semi-seriously suggests, it may keep the pharmacist away. The study serves as an instructive and humorous way to look at the perpetually thorny problem of how to best understand and make use of findings from observational studies. As this new paper makes clear,…
Very Simple High-Fiber Diet Stands Up To American Heart Association Diet
February 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Diets notoriously fail to help people lose a lot of weight. One problem is that most diets include a broad range of restrictions and guidelines that many people find difficult to follow. Another problem is that negative recommendations may have unintended consequences, such as low-fat recommendations leading to increased consumption of refined carbohydrates. Now a new…
New US Guidelines Will Lift Limits On Dietary Cholesterol
February 10, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The influential Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has recommended that limitations on dietary cholesterol be removed from the upcoming 2015 edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Recommendations to reduce dietary cholesterol have been a mainstay of the USDA and other guidelines for many years, starting with guidelines from the American Heart Association in the 1960s. … Click here to read…
No Advantage For Low Glycemic Index Diet
December 16, 2014 by 1 Comment
In recent years the glycemic index (GI), a measure of a carbohydrate’s impact on blood sugar, has assumed a major role in discussions about diets and nutrition. Now a new study suggests that by itself, within the context of an otherwise healthy diet, GI may not be an important factor in improving cardiovascular risk. In…
Get Rid of Sugar, Not Salt, Say Authors
December 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Too much negative attention has been focused on salt and not enough on sugar, write two authors in Open Heart. Reviewing the extensive literature on salt and sugar, they write that the adverse effects of salt are less than the adverse effects of sugar. The evidence supporting efforts to reduce salt in the diet is not convincing…
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