Advice to eat more fat by the National Obesity Forum, which has said that eating fat could cut down the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes, has been termed as an irresponsible and potentially deadly advice by the Public Health England’s chief nutritionist.
Dr Alison Tedstone was responding to the report by the National Obesity Forum, which had suggested eating fat could help cut obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Other experts have also criticised the Charity’s recommendation to eat more fat, citing that the report had cherry-picked evidence.
The National Obesity Forum had quoted just 43 studies, some of which were comment pieces.
Dr. Tedstone said that thousands of scientific studies were considered as part of the official guidance that was put into practice throughout the UK.
Eat Fat To Get Slim, Advises Charity
Dr Aseem Malhotra, a senior adviser to the National Obesity Forum, said,
“The change in dietary advice to promote low fat foods is perhaps the biggest mistake in modern medical history.
“We must urgently change the message to the public to reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes. Eat fat to get slim, don’t fear fat, fat is your friend.”
The charity had also said that promoting low-fat food had had “disastrous health consequences” and therefore, should be reversed.
Risk Of High Fat Diet
Responding to the report by the Charity, Dr Tedstone said,
“In the face of all the evidence, calling for people to eat more fat, cut out carbs and ignore calories is irresponsible.”
She added,
“It’s a risk to the nation’s health when potentially influential voices suggest people should eat a high fat diet, especially saturated fat. Too much saturated fat in the diet increases the risk of raised cholesterol, a route to heart disease and possible death.”
The report said humans had evolved to be a “healthy well-nourished species with a long life expectancy”.
However, this had gone wrong in the past 30 years.
The report said that there was too much focus on calories when “it is highly irrelevant how many calories a portion of food on a plate contains”.
Also, the report mentioned that it was “untrue” that excessive calories caused obesity.
The government’s obesity adviser Prof Susan Jebb said the “current dietary advice is based on the best evidence we have”.
“We’re eating too many calories – if we want to tackle obesity people do need to eat fewer calories [and] that means less fat and less sugar.”
Prof Tom Sanders from King’s College London said,
“The harsh criticism of current dietary guidelines meted out in this report is not justified as few people adhere to these guidelines anyway.
“There is good evidence that those that do follow the guidelines have less weight gain and better health outcomes.”
