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The scientific consensus was worse than "fat is bad for you", it was saturated fat is bad, so switch from butter to trans fat loaded margarine. It lead to thing

The scientific consensus was worse than "fat is bad for you", it was saturated fat is bad, so switch from butter to trans fat loaded margarine. It lead to things like McDonalds using hydrogenated vegetable oil instead of saturated fat laden beef tallow in their fryers. The scientific consensus was specifically wrong on the types of fat that were bad.

dragonwriter 12y ago
> The scientific consensus was worse than "fat is bad for you", it was saturated fat is bad, so switch from butter to trans fat loaded margarine. That recommendation was never "the scientific consensus" -- for most of the time after saturated fat was identified as a concern and before trans fats were identified as a specific concern, the scientific consensus was that the best change was to eliminate the saturated fats and not replace them, since most people that were getting too much saturated fats were also getting too many calories and too much of their intake in the form of fat of any kind. Obviously, marketers of alternative fat products had a different viewpoint. And, actually, the scientific consensus still seems to mostly be that saturated fat is bad from a cardiovascular disease perspective, what has mostly evolved is that trans fats and carbohydrates as replacements now appear to be equally bad, and the value of monounsaturated fats as replacements is unclear -- studies focusing on replacement show that replacing saturated fats with polyunsatured fats generally is beneficial. There's also some reason to think that more research is needed on particular kinds of saturated fats, and that there may be significant differences between them (milk fat may be beneficial, for instance.)
- Dylan16807 12y ago
  >the scientific consensus was that the best change was to eliminate the saturated fats and not replace them What kind of useless recommendation is this. You can say the same thing about carbs, other fats, pretty much everything that supplies calories.
- Evgeny 12y ago
  And, actually, the scientific consensus still seems to mostly be that saturated fat is bad from a cardiovascular disease perspective I don't think it is anymore. A Systematic Review of the Evidence Supporting a Causal Link Between Dietary Factors and Coronary Heart Disease http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1108492 http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=11084... Insufficient evidence (≤2 criteria) of association is present for intake of supplementary vitamin E and ascorbic acid (vitamin C); saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids; total fat; Reduced or modified dietary fat for preventing cardiovascular disease http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD002137.pub3/abstract;jsessionid=E737576B6A14E53D52A299778ADCD657.f04t01 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD002137... There were no clear effects of dietary fat changes on total mortality (RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.04, 71,790 participants) or cardiovascular mortality Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/91/3/535.long http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/91/3/535.long no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD.

dragonwriter 12y ago

> The scientific consensus was worse than "fat is bad for you", it was saturated fat is bad, so switch from butter to trans fat loaded margarine. That recommendation was never "the scientific consensus" -- for most of the time after saturated fat was identified as a concern and before trans fats were identified as a specific concern, the scientific consensus was that the best change was to eliminate the saturated fats and not replace them, since most people that were getting too much saturated fats were also getting too many calories and too much of their intake in the form of fat of any kind. Obviously, marketers of alternative fat products had a different viewpoint. And, actually, the scientific consensus still seems to mostly be that saturated fat is bad from a cardiovascular disease perspective, what has mostly evolved is that trans fats and carbohydrates as replacements now appear to be equally bad, and the value of monounsaturated fats as replacements is unclear -- studies focusing on replacement show that replacing saturated fats with polyunsatured fats generally is beneficial. There's also some reason to think that more research is needed on particular kinds of saturated fats, and that there may be significant differences between them (milk fat may be beneficial, for instance.)

Dylan16807 12y ago
>the scientific consensus was that the best change was to eliminate the saturated fats and not replace them What kind of useless recommendation is this. You can say the same thing about carbs, other fats, pretty much everything that supplies calories.
Evgeny 12y ago
And, actually, the scientific consensus still seems to mostly be that saturated fat is bad from a cardiovascular disease perspective I don't think it is anymore. A Systematic Review of the Evidence Supporting a Causal Link Between Dietary Factors and Coronary Heart Disease http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1108492 http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=11084... Insufficient evidence (≤2 criteria) of association is present for intake of supplementary vitamin E and ascorbic acid (vitamin C); saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids; total fat; Reduced or modified dietary fat for preventing cardiovascular disease http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD002137.pub3/abstract;jsessionid=E737576B6A14E53D52A299778ADCD657.f04t01 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD002137... There were no clear effects of dietary fat changes on total mortality (RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.04, 71,790 participants) or cardiovascular mortality Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/91/3/535.long http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/91/3/535.long no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD.