Since the 1980s, America has undergone an epidemic: We’re fatter than ever. And a lot of people look to the government to solve it.
But what if the government itself jump-started the epidemic?
According to a growing number of researchers, doctors and successful dieters, the usual cause of obesity has long been known, but government-supported science, backed by Congressional committees and official dogma, inverted that wisdom. What government sparked was the “low-fat revolution,” which basically said that eating fats made you fat. Government propaganda and funding set industry off to replace fats in foods with . . . sugars.
And thus began a movement that ran right up against our endocrine systems, making us hungrier the more carbohydrates we ate, fatter the faster those carbs were turned to blood sugars, and diabetic in increasing numbers.
This is the point science Gary Taubes has been making for a decade, famously starting with a New York Times essay, “What If It Has All Been a Big Fat Lie?” He defends the approach of Dr. Atkins, famous for his high meat-and-fat/low-carb diet.
Since that essay, similar diets and research have pointed in that general direction. An economist has even touted a “cave man” diet.
You don’t have to turn to government to lose weight — though, interestingly, the USDA’s current advice isn’t as crazy as it once was, and the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign appears reasonable.
Ignore, instead, the government’s past bad advice.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.