The inescapable conclusion of the papers on obesity risk factors is that no-one is wrong. Overingestion of sugar is harmful; over-ingestion of fat is harmful; but then over-ingestion of anything is harmful.
We will get nowhere by trying to persuade people to alter their diets when the advice is conflicting. We may get further by empahsising the importance of not overeating anything and everything. And from a scientific viewpoint we may achieve more by investigating the relative effects of various foodstuffs on satiety; the suggestion that fructose has less inhibitory effect on appetite than other sugars is interesting in that context.
Having spent many a lunchtime watching the indiscriminate scoffing of too much of everything in hospital canteens (the worst I can remember was a double plate of chips followed by a huge dollop of sponge pudding and custard - nothing else) by folk who are already enormous it is clear that many modern men and women have lost the ability to feel full. If we could restore that then perhaps the burden of heart disease and diabetes would finally reduce. This may owe more to general education than to dietary strictures: grazing may be very bad; eating large meals and sitting doing little may be bad also (hence eat at lunch and not in the evening - no chips!- so calories might be burnt off if only by walking to the car).
Rapid Response:
Re: How science is going sour on sugar
The inescapable conclusion of the papers on obesity risk factors is that no-one is wrong. Overingestion of sugar is harmful; over-ingestion of fat is harmful; but then over-ingestion of anything is harmful.
We will get nowhere by trying to persuade people to alter their diets when the advice is conflicting. We may get further by empahsising the importance of not overeating anything and everything. And from a scientific viewpoint we may achieve more by investigating the relative effects of various foodstuffs on satiety; the suggestion that fructose has less inhibitory effect on appetite than other sugars is interesting in that context.
Having spent many a lunchtime watching the indiscriminate scoffing of too much of everything in hospital canteens (the worst I can remember was a double plate of chips followed by a huge dollop of sponge pudding and custard - nothing else) by folk who are already enormous it is clear that many modern men and women have lost the ability to feel full. If we could restore that then perhaps the burden of heart disease and diabetes would finally reduce. This may owe more to general education than to dietary strictures: grazing may be very bad; eating large meals and sitting doing little may be bad also (hence eat at lunch and not in the evening - no chips!- so calories might be burnt off if only by walking to the car).
Competing interests: No competing interests