Fatty Food And Sugar: Which Is More Harmful To Your Health?

Is fatty food or sugar the most harmful to your health? Cholesterol and cardiovascular disease: basic research by American and British scientists.

Back in 1972, the English scientist John Yudkin pointed out the wrong public paradigm, according to which fats were the most dangerous enemy for human health. The scientist claimed that sugar is to blame for everything! But no one wanted to listen to the scientist. Moreover, Yudkin was ridiculed by the scientific community, and his reputation was considerably tarnished. But almost 40 years later, modern science came to the conclusion that John Yudkin was looking into the water...

"Pure, white, deadly"

"Pure, white deadly" is the name of the book by John Yudkin, who tried to warn the whole world about the dangers of this substance. Sweets are a direct path to obesity, inflammatory diseases and many other pathologies that are difficult (or impossible) to cure. Famous nutritionists and scientists in the field of nutrition in the 70s considered Yudkin's work amateurish. They ridiculed a scientist who refused to believe that fat was the main cause of obesity in modern society. John Yudkin died in 1995, never having achieved recognition for his scientific works.

14 years after Yudkin's death, in 2009, an American pediatric endocrinologist from California, Robert Lustig, gave a lecture where he categorically asserted that fructose, which is used in the production of dietary products, is a direct path to obesity. The doctor insisted that sugar is the main cause of obesity (naturally in combination with hypodynamia). At this conference, Robert Lustig was approached by his Australian colleague and asked if he had read the writings of John Yudkin, who had argued the same thing nearly 40 years earlier, and whether Mr. Lustig feared the same fate as Yudkin by daring to enter into such a serious discussion about the harm of sugar.

However, unlike John Yudkin, Robert Lustig was fortunate to work in an era where one article after another was published about the dangers of sugar. Today, no one has any doubts about this. A number of countries introduce serious taxes on the production of sugar-containing products.

After Robert Lustig returned home from the conference, he began looking for Yudkin's book, which an Australian scholar had told him about. After reading only the introduction, Lustig was very surprised: "Damn, this guy already knew everything 37 years ago"!

 

The era of "enemy" fats

At the beginning of the 80s of the last century, after long consultations of scientists, doctors, nutritionists and representatives of other specialties, the US government issued new recommendations for nutrition. Cholesterol was called the main culprit of all human ills. He should be feared like the devil of incense. It was from this period of time that people massively began to switch to low-cholesterol diets and regularly measure the level of cholesterol in the blood. Already in 1983, the American food trend was picked up by Great Britain, followed by a number of European countries. From now on, fatty meat, sausages, steaks were declared unhealthy food, and it is desirable to replace them with rice or pasta; it is better to replace butter with margarine or vegetable oil; milk - skimmed milk or even orange juice. But here's the trouble... Americans and Britons did not become healthier from such recommendations.

Interesting statistics

It is noteworthy that in 1950 (before the start of the anti-cholesterol hysteria), only 12% of people in the United States were obese. In 1980, there were already 15% of them, and today it is almost 40%! In 1980, only 6% of people in the UK were diagnosed with obesity, but today more than 60% of Britons are obese or overweight. In this sense, Great Britain ranks first in Europe.

Who is to blame for the discrediting of fat that has resulted in such dire consequences? Politicians, media, doctors and scientists who made a catastrophic mistake? There is still no answer to this question, because no one wants to feel guilty. For decades, Americans, Britons, and other developed countries have been consuming low-fat yogurts that are high in sugar or fructose. And confectionery products began to be prepared without butter, but with margarine, thereby quite "flavoring" the product with harmful trans fats, which strongly "hit" the liver and provoke the development of oncological diseases.

And yet, how could it be so badly miscalculated? Did scientists really make this terrible mistake, or is it all a matter of conspiracy - the pressure of sugar tycoons and companies that produce harmful "sweetness"? Each of us, and even more so a scientist, knows that a person gets energy from fats, carbohydrates and proteins. As a rule, the share of protein in the diet remains unchanged, and if we significantly reduce the share of fat in the diet, then we automatically switch to a diet with an increased content of carbohydrates. Well, the most universal and accessible carbohydrate is sugar, on which the mentioned John Yudkin hanged all the dogs for good reason.

However, it should be understood that science is largely a story of proof and disproof, and nutrition is no exception. It is not a fact that modern views on the nutritional system will not be refuted in a few years, as happened with the total fight against cholesterol.

The fact that the low-fat diet paradigm is harmful was first noticed by doctors, and then by media representatives. So, the famous journalist Nina Teilhotz studied this phenomenon in detail, after which she wrote the book "The Big Fat Surprise". In his book, the author writes that the reason for the fact that the low-fat diet has existed for so long (and is even still captured by the minds of many doctors and dieticians) is that famous nutritionists who have earned a reputation and respect on this topic have not agreed to revise it in any way postulates put forward earlier.

Today, nutritionists are trying to correct mistakes, but this process is going with great difficulties. Thus, Nina Teicholts points out that representatives of the "old school" still cannot come to terms with the fact that excluding fats from the diet is unwise and harmful to health, and the main "evil" for human health is sugar and fast carbohydrates.

 

How it all began

How did the Americans and the entire progressive society find themselves in such a trap? In order to understand this, you need to go back 70 years, when the science of nutrition was just born. In 1955, US President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a heart attack, but the head of state insisted that nothing be hidden from American society, as the people have the right to know about the state of health of their leader. Dudley White, the attending physician of the President of Poland, hastily held a conference for journalists, at which he told the media everything in detail, and also instructed Americans on how to prevent the development of heart diseases. In particular, the doctor recommended people to quit smoking, as well as to reduce the consumption of fats and cholesterol. In this case, Dr. White referred to an authoritative nutritionist from the University of Minnesota, Ansel Keys.

Even in the 20s of the last century, cardiovascular diseases were relatively rare in the USA, but in the 50s, their share in the incidence structure increased significantly. Americans began to look for the cause of such a phenomenon, and the first who dared to propose a hypothesis was Ansel Keys. In his writings, Dr. Keys writes that the cause of cardiovascular disease in Americans is a diet rich in fats. Due to this diet, the arteries lose their elasticity and narrow, which increases the risk of myocardial infarction.

Ansel Keys vs. John Yudkin

Ansel Keys is one of the most famous and charismatic scientists in the field of nutrition. He defended his views on the food system so firmly that his colleagues in the shop accused Dr. Keys of unhealthy dogmatism bordering on insanity. Ansel Keys presented his theory about the harmful effects of fatty foods in a well-argued manner, and almost no one dared to argue with the authoritative doctor. One of the few who looked at it with skepticism was the well-known John Yudkin. Yudkin scrupulously studied the medical history of hundreds of patients, and came to the conclusion that similar diseases do not occur due to the use of fat, but sugar. John Yudkin conducted a series of laboratory studies on animals, and then examined the blood of people, where he found that the consumed sugar is converted into fat in the liver.

While developing his theory about the harmfulness of sugar, Yudkin, unlike Keys, also took into account the evolutionary factor. So, man began to actively consume carbohydrates only 10 thousand years ago, when tribes began to develop agriculture. However, sugar (pure carbohydrate, stripped of fiber) made it to our table only 300 years ago. For evolution, this is a real trifle. As for saturated fats, humans use them for a long time, and they are even present in breast milk. Therefore, Yudkin refused to believe Keys that the culprit of the rapidly growing number of cardiovascular diseases is fat. "No, this is a product that we started using relatively recently," Yudkin noted in his writings.

John Yudkin dared to oppose his theory to that of Keyes, and the latter began an uncompromising war. Ansel Keys began to accuse Yudkin of colluding with meat and milk producers, and the British Sugar Bureau accused Yudkin of incorrectness in his research on the harmfulness of sugar. Due to his character, Yudkin did not respond to the same, but only quietly continued to conduct his research, which, unfortunately, went unnoticed under the loud criticism of Ansel Keys and sugar manufacturers.

 

Fundamental research "Seven countries"

And at this time, the power of Ansel Keys was growing. The scientist achieved that the American Heart Association and the National Institute of Health accepted people close to Ansel Keys. Thanks to this, Ansel Keys was able to accumulate significant funds, which he directed to the research of his theory.

From 1958 to 1964, Ansel Keys and his colleagues collected information on the diet of more than 700 men from seven countries: Greece, the Netherlands, the United States, Japan, Italy, Finland, and Yugoslavia. A 211-page study in 1970 stated that there was a direct correlation between cardiovascular disease and saturated fat.

Despite such convincing data, in the 70s, some scientists began to be skeptical of Keyes' theory. In particular, the countries for the study were not chosen randomly. Why did the French or the Germans participate in the study? In these countries, a lot of fatty food is consumed, but the percentage of cardiovascular diseases is low. Keyes was well aware of this phenomenon and therefore deliberately refused to conduct research in these countries.

Ansel Keys' persistence and the institutional power he wielded nevertheless allowed him to advance his theory, and the Seven Countries study became the foundation for the then concept in dietetics. Since then, nutritionists have been trumpeting in all mass media that it is necessary to limit fats, switch to everything low-fat and cholesterol-free. And nobody wanted to hear about John Yudkin.

 

Cholesterol in friends or how many eggs you can eat at a time

Over the years, Keyes's theory has raised many questions. Why did Americans become fat? Why is there such a high death rate from cardiovascular diseases in the USA, despite the continuous fight against cholesterol?

And now let's figure it out... Indeed, cholesterol is deposited in blood vessels, narrowing their lumen, which leads to myocardial infarction and other heart pathologies. However, cholesterol deposited in blood vessels has nothing to do with fats and cholesterol that enter our body with food. The problem with Ansel Keys and his "tribesmen" was that they did not understand biochemistry well. The thing is that cholesterol is produced in the liver, and if you eat low-fat food, the liver starts producing more cholesterol. Eggs, which have been blacklisted by Ansel Keys (due to the cholesterol content of the yolk), in fact, are not. It makes no difference whether you eat 2 eggs or 10, because the body itself controls the level of cholesterol in the blood.

Research conducted in the 90s showed that the famous work "Seven Countries" does not reflect existing realities. People who consume different amounts of fat have an almost equal chance of developing cardiovascular disease. And, finally, similar studies were conducted in 2010 by the American Association of Dietitians. After large-scale research, the following was stated at one of the scientific conferences: "There is no significant evidence that the content of saturated fats in the diet is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease or other cardiovascular diseases."

 

Instead of a conclusion

Paradoxically, despite such convincing research in recent years, nutritionists continue the war on fat. I am glad that recently, an active fight against sugar has begun.

Research shows that a diet to get rid of excess weight should be reduced mainly to limiting the use of sugar and carbohydrates, but not fats! Research in recent years shows that people who limited themselves in carbohydrates (but not in fats and proteins) lost mainly fat mass, and those who limited fat consumption lost muscle mass.

Today, more and more scientists, experts and journalists recognize the works of John Yudkin. We have to state the fact that, unfortunately, they are opposed by a huge institutional system, as well as the interests of large corporations. But the light at the end of the tunnel is visible, and common sense is beginning to gradually break through to the surface.