I consider myself to be as fortunate as I am frustrated to witness the current revolution in our understanding of the role of fats in proper nutrition and health. The tide seems to be turning and we’re returning from whence we came. Every week, it seems, someone else is questioning the “fat is bad” orthodoxy, and medical practitioners are speaking out.

This week it’s the British Medical Journal, and I have Alice and Fred Ottoboni to thank for pointing it out to me.

When they say, “This is important…”, I tend to listen.

So what’s all the fuss? It’s about Dr. Aseem Malhotra’s Observations article in the British Medical Journal, Saturated Fat Is Not The Major Issue. He begins his piece by taking on the familiar obsession with saturated fat and heart disease:

The mantra that saturated fat must be removed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease has dominated dietary advice and guidelines for almost four decades.

Yet scientific evidence shows that this advice has, paradoxically, increased our cardiovascular risks. Furthermore, the government’s obsession with levels of total cholesterol, which has led to the overmedication of millions of people with statins, has diverted our attention from the more egregious risk factor of atherogenic dyslipidaemia. (source)

It gets better from there. If you’re familiar with Gary Taubes, Robert Lustig, or Alice and Fred Ottoboni (among others), there is little here that is new to you.

Read it anyway.

It’s as concise, referenced, and thoughtfully-penned assessment of the current sorry state of nutritional wisdom as you are likely to find anywhere.

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