Urging people to follow low-fat diets and to lower their cholesterol is having “disastrous health consequences”, a health charity has warned, citing avocados as part of the solution.
In a new report that accuses major public health bodies of colluding with the food industry, the National Obesity Forum and the Public Health Collaboration - a group of medics - call for a “major overhaul” of current dietary guidelines.
They say the focus on low-fat diets is failing to address Britain’s obesity crisis, while snacking between meals is making people fat.
Instead, they call for a return to “whole foods” as well as high-fat healthy foods such as avocados, arguing: “Eating fat does not make you fat.”
The report, which The Guardian says has caused a huge backlash among the scientific community, also argues that saturated fat does not cause heart disease, while full-fat dairy, including milk, yoghurt and cheese, can actually protect the heart.
Processed foods labelled “low fat”, “lite”, “low cholesterol” or “proven to lower cholesterol” should be avoided at all costs, and people with type 2 diabetes should eat a fat-rich diet rather than one based on carbohydrates.
The report also said sugar should be avoided, people should stop counting calories and the idea that exercise could help you “outrun a bad diet” was a myth. Instead, a diet low in refined carbohydrates but high in healthy fats was “an effective and safe approach for preventing weight gain and aiding weight loss”, and cuts the risk of heart disease, it said.
The report added: '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.'
The authors of the report also argue that the science of food has also been “corrupted by commercial influences”.
Professor David Haslam, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, told The Guardian: “As a clinician, treating patients all day every day, I quickly realised that 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.”
Dr Aseem Malhotra, consultant cardiologist and founding member of the Public Health Collaboration, said dietary guidelines promoting low-fat foods were “perhaps the biggest mistake in modern medical history, resulting in devastating consequences for public health”.
She added: “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.”
