Now experts say low fat diets are BAD for us: Obesity charity claims we should stop counting calories and eat more healthy fats - but the Government brands advice 'irresponsible'
- Report accuses public health bodies of colluding with food industry
- Claims most of what we are told about healthy eating is wrong
- And that far from demonising fat, we should be eating more of it
- But critics argue the authors cherry picked evidence to suit their argument
Cutting back on butter, cream, cheese and other fatty foods is fuelling the obesity epidemic with disastrous consequences for health, experts have warned.
In a damning report that accuses major public health bodies of colluding with the food industry, the National Obesity Forum and the Public Health Collaboration said most of what we are told about healthy eating is wrong.
The report's authors say the epidemic's roots lie in the modern-day obsession with low-fat diets, while snacking between meals is making people fat.
And their highly controversial report - which has been slammed by many other experts for being 'irresponsible' - cites studies which show a higher-fat, lower-carb diet to be superior.
It states: 'Eating a diet rich in full-fat dairy – such as cheese, milk and yoghurt – can actually lower the chance of obesity.
'The most natural and nutritious foods available – meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, olives, avocados – all contain saturated fat.'
Low fat diets are fuelling the obesity epidemic, an obesity charity claims. People should stop counting calories and eat healthy fats like butter, cream, cheese, eggs, salmon, avocado and nuts, it said
Calling for a 'major overhaul' of dietary guidelines, today's report claims:
* Processed foods labelled 'low fat', 'lite', 'low cholesterol' or 'proven to lower cholesterol' should be avoided at all costs
* People with type 2 diabetes should eat a fat-rich diet rather than one based on carbohydrates.
* Sugar should be avoided and we should stop counting calories.
* The idea that exercise can help you 'outrun a bad diet' is a myth.
* Instead, a diet low in refined carbohydrates but high in healthy fats is 'an effective and safe approach for preventing weight gain and aiding weight loss', and cuts the risk of heart disease.
* The report's authors call for a return to 'whole foods' such as meat, fish and dairy, as well as high fat healthy foods including avocados, arguing that 'eating fat does not make you fat'.
* Eating a diet rich in full fat dairy - such as cheese, milk and yoghurt - can actually lower the chance of obesity.
* Saturated fat does not cause heart disease, while full fat diary can actually protect the heart.
It states: 'The most natural and nutritious foods available - meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, olive, avocados - all contain saturated fat.
'The continued demonisation of omnipresent natural fat drives people away from highly nourishing, wholesome and health promoting foods.'
Professor David Haslam, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said: 'As a clinician, treating patients all day every day, I quickly realised guidelines from on high, suggesting high carbohydrate, low fat diets were the universal panacea, were deeply flawed.
'Current efforts have failed - the proof being that obesity levels are higher than they have ever been, and show no chance of reducing despite the best efforts of Government and scientists.'
Co-author of the report, Aseem Malhotra, is a founding member of the Public Health Collaboration – a charity made up of dietitians, scientists and doctors.
As a clinician, treating patients all day every day, I quickly realised guidelines from on high, suggesting high carbohydrate, low fat diets were the universal panacea, were deeply flawed
Professor David Haslam, chairman of the National Obesity Forum
He said promoting low-fat foods was 'perhaps the biggest mistake in modern medical history resulting in devastating consequences for public health'.
'Sadly this unhelpful advice continues to be perpetuated.
'The current Eatwell guide from Public Health England is in my view more like a metabolic timebomb than a dietary pattern conducive for good health.
'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. It's now truly time to bring back the fat.'
Professor Iain Broom, from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, said in agreement: 'The continuation of a food policy recommending high carbohydrate, low fat, low calorie intakes as 'healthy eating' is fatally flawed.
'Our populations for almost 40 years, have been subjected to an uncontrolled global experiment that has gone drastically wrong.'
However the report has caused a huge backlash among the scientific community.
Co-author of the report, consultant cardiologist Aseem Malhotra said: 'Eat fat to get slim, don't fear it, fat is your friend. It's now truly time to bring back the fat'
The controversial claims have been heavily criticised by other experts who accused the report's authors of cherry picking evidence to suit their own arguments.
Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Heath England, said:
'In the face of all the evidence, calling for people to eat more fat, cut out carbs and ignore calories is irresponsible.
'Unlike this opinion piece, our independent experts review all the available evidence - often thousands of scientific papers - run full-scale consultations and go to great lengths to ensure no bias.
'International health organisations agree that too much saturated fat raises cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease and obesity is caused by consistently consuming too many calories.'
Professor Tom Sanders, of King's College London, said: 'The claim that eating fat doesn't make you fat is absurd. If you eat a lot of fat, you will get fat.'
And Professor John Wass, the Royal College of Physicians' special adviser on obesity, said there was 'good evidence that saturated fat increases cholesterol'.
He added: 'What is needed is a balanced diet, regular physical activity and a normal healthy weight. To quote selective studies risks misleading the public.'
Professor Simon Capewell, from the Faculty of Public Health, added: 'We fully support Public Health England's new guidance on a healthy diet. Their advice reflects evidence-based science that we can all trust. It was not influenced by industry.
The most natural and nutritious foods available – meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, olives, avocados – all contain saturated fat, the report says
'By contrast, the report from the National Obesity Forum is not peer reviewed.
'Furthermore, it does not it indicate who wrote it or how is was funded. That is worrying.'
Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said: 'This report is full of ideas and opinion, however it does not offer the robust and comprehensive review of evidence that would be required for the BHF, as the UK's largest heart research charity, to take it seriously.
'This country's obesity epidemic is not caused by poor dietary guidelines; it is that we are not meeting them.'
'This report is full of ideas and opinion, however it does not offer the robust and comprehensive review of evidence that would be required for the UK's largest heart research charity, to take it seriously
Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director, British Heart Foundation
The row comes just two months after a landmark report in The Lancet revealed more than one in ten men and one in seven women around the globe are now obese.
And the situation is only set to get worse, with experts predicting almost a fifth of us will fall into this category within a decade.
The alarming statistics were part of the world's biggest obesity study, which measured the height and weight of nearly 20 million adults.
It revealed there are currently 640 million obese people around the globe, comprising 266 million men and 375 million women.
Overall, the fattest men and women now live in China and the USA.
However the USA still has the highest number of severely obese men and women in the world.
In Britain, obesity rates are 28.4 per cent for women - the second highest in Europe behind only Malta – and 26.2 per cent for men, the worst in the continent.
And in a decade, it will be the fattest nation in Europe, with almost 40 per cent of adults obese.
Type 2 diabetes rates are soaring, fuelled by obesity, and the condition uses up a tenth of the NHS's budget.
HEALTHY FATS AND WHY THEY ARE GOOD FOR US
A small amount of fat is an essential part of a healthy, balanced diet.
Fat is a source of essential fatty acids such as omega-3 – 'essential' because the body can't make them itself.
Fat also helps the body absorb vitamins A, D and E.
There are different types of fat and some are better for us than others, the Government claims.
To cut the risk of heart disease, the Government recommends cutting the amount of saturated fat - found in meat and dairy products - with unsaturated fat.
Monounsaturated fats - such as those found in avocado, olive oil and nuts - help protect our hearts
There is good evidence that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats can help lower cholesterol, it says.
Found primarily in oils from plants, unsaturated fats can be either polyunsaturated or monounsaturated.
Monounsaturated fats help protect our hearts by maintaining levels of HDL cholesterol while reducing levels of LDL cholesterol.
Monounsaturated fats are found in:
- olive oil, rapeseed oil and their spreads
- avocados
- some nuts, such as almonds, brazils and peanuts
There are two types of polyunsaturated fats: omega-3 and omega-6.
Some types of omega-3 and omega-6 fats cannot be made by the body and are therefore essential in small amounts in the diet.
Omega-6 fats are found in vegetable oils such as rapeseed, corn, sunflower and some nuts.
Omega-3 fats are found in oily fish such as mackerel, kippers, herring, trout, sardines, salmon and fresh tuna.
Polyunsaturated fats can help lower the level of LDL cholesterol.
Too much LDL cholesterol can lead to fatty deposits developing in the arteries, which can restrict the flow of blood to the heart and brain, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats may also help reduce triglyceride levels.
Triglycerides are fatty substances mostly made by the liver.
High levels of triglycerides in the blood have also been linked with narrowing of the arteries.
Source: NHS Choices
Scandal of the new 'healthy eating' guidelines that the food and drinks industry helped to develop
Today's report also argued the science of food has been 'corrupted by commercial influences', with food industry representatives having a major influence on Public Health England's Eatwell Guide.
As MailOnline reported at the time, the graphic was developed with members of the food and drinks industry, documents show.
The image for the Eatwell Guide, which was unveiled in March, was decided upon by a reference group made up of almost 50 per cent industry members.
These included the British Retail Consortium, the Food and Drink Federation, and the Institute of Grocery Distribution, whose members include Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Waitrose, as well as major food producers and brands.
The new Eatwell Guide, produced by Public Health England, was developed with members of the food and drinks industry, documents show
The group also included representatives from the Association of Convenience Stores and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), which is funded by farmers and growers and supports the meat, dairy and potato industry.
Other members of the review group included health bodies such as Association for Nutrition and the British Nutrition Foundation.
Criticism of PHE's links with industry have been made in a new report from the National Obesity Forum and the Public Health Collaboration.
It is not the first time PHE's association with industry has come under scrutiny.
Last year, experts in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and The Lancet criticised the evidence used by PHE in its report on e-cigarettes.
Researchers questioned the robustness of the data and pointed to links between some experts, the tobacco industry and firms that manufacture e-cigarettes.
An editorial in The Lancet medical journal attacked the 'extraordinarily flimsy foundation' on which PHE based its major conclusion.
And in the BMJ, two further researchers said PHE's claims that 'the current best estimate is that e-cigarettes are around 95 per cent less harmful than smoking' came from a single meeting of 12 people, some of whom had links to industry.
The external reference group for the Eatwell Guide met several times between 2014 and 2015.
Their terms of reference included revising the segment sizes for the Eatwell Plate, reviewing the visuals and 'approaches for reflecting messages on foods that should be consumed in limited amounts', the documents, seen by the Press Association following enquiries to PHE, show.
The eventual guide put high-fat and high-sugar foods outside the healthy eating 'wheel', with a warning to 'eat less often and in small amounts'.
The dairy section was cut to almost half its previous size and replaced with pictures of several lower fat options.
The revised guide also told consumers to eat 'at least' five portions of fruit and veg per day, while the section for potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and other starchy carbohydrates was beefed up to give a slightly
The beans, pulses, fish, meat and eggs section remained the same size but advised people to 'eat less red and processed meat'.
The guide also told consumers to eat 'at least' five portions of fruit and veg per day, while the section for potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and other starchy carbohydrates was beefed up to give a slightly bigger role for these foods.
The refresh of the Eatwell model was conducted openly using robust scientific approaches
Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England
A new oils and spreads section also urged people to 'choose unsaturated oils and use in small amounts', while people were also told to drink water, lower-fat milk or sugar-free drinks.
Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at PHE, said decisions on the graphic were made separately to the nutritional recommendations underpinning them.
She said: 'Our independent experts review all the available evidence - often hundreds of scientific papers - run full-scale consultations and go to great lengths to ensure no bias when developing our scientific advice on nutrition.
'These recommendations are completely separate to the Eatwell model, which is a visual way of presenting the information.
'The refresh of the Eatwell model was conducted openly using robust scientific approaches.
'Advice was generated from an external reference group engaging interested stakeholders; including health, voluntary and industry representatives to ensure a wide range of views were considered.'
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