The Carb Conspiracy: Part 4

Back in 1992 the food pyramid was introduced, and then in 2005 it was updated. This became the bench mark that was to be followed and advised for nutritional health. Maybe the intentions were good but both pyramids are greatly flawed and misconceptions were formed. The 1992 pyramid encouraged low fat and high carbohydrates. To greatly summarize, what happened is that saturated fat was linked to the risk of heart disease and other ailments, the pyramid therefore instructed us to reduce the fat in our diet. With that preface it could not then promote a high protein diet as red meat contains a lot of saturated fat. It had just told us that fat was bad and protein, especially red meat, has fat in it, so it too must be “bad” …. What was left? Fat was bad and by default protein was therefore bad which left us with only carbohydrates; so by elimination alone, carbohydrates became “good.” The 1992 pyramid failed to distinguish between good fats and bad fats and it did not consider the different sources of protein. We know red meat can contain a lot of saturated fat, we also know that poultry does not and fish is indeed a rich source of the good fats.

So for many years we did the low fat, high carb diet. The food industry kicked in with all their “low fat” foods which were actually low in fat but loaded with sugars and sweeteners. Years went by and everyone just got larger and larger. In one of the most expensive studies ever (Womens Health Initiative), two groups of women were studied
over an 8 year period. One group ate a low fat diet while the other group ate a regular diet, the results showed absolutely no difference in health. Another study looked at low fat diets and found that weight was lost initially but after only one month the weight had been regained and that over the course of one year there was no weight loss benefit at all to following a low fat diet. So the low fat way was not working, and then we hear that the high carb diets that we have been following actually are linked to increased blood triglycerides and LDL (bad cholesterol) and lowered HDL (good cholesterol).

Carbohydrates were looked at even more closely and we found the insulin relationship and that high carb diets along with low activity levels had huge consequences, obesity was sky rocketing and those people who cut the carbs were thrilled by the immediate weight loss they experienced. The word was out and low carb was in.