The Debate - Low-Fat V Full-Fat

Since the 1980s, the public has been told to opt for low-fat foods over full-fat ones. Sorry to say, you were lied to!

- Claudette Casey-Freeman

This radical change was initiated from a few mechanistic and animal studies and some cross-national comparisons that were developed suggesting the potential benefits of a low-fat diet. There were also some small trials demonstrating poor satiety of full-fat which were correlated to potentially cause over-eating. The decision from these results was mainly based on calorie effects, but they assumed that overeating on a high-carbohydrate diet was virtually impossible and so replacing fat with carbohydrates would help with weight loss. I know! Sounds ludicrous, hey!

To add to this, cross-sectional epidemiological studies demonstrated a very small amount of evidence that people who consumed a high-carbohydrate or high-sugar diet weighed less than those who consumed a high-fat diet… Thank goodness for our current knowledge of ‘skinny-fat’, is all I can say about that!

Based on all this kerfuffle, the US and Australian governments recommended to reduce all full-fat dairy, butter, oils, nuts, avocado and fatty fish. And to increase to 6-11 servings of grain products and additional potatoes, and of course the manufacturers and food industry jumped on board… the rest is the disaster that we are now left with.