From Paul Tavener
Research into the effects of dietary fat on disease has suffered from 40 years of distortion and misinterpretation. The establishment of an early consensus on very flimsy evidence, driven by very forceful personalities, has proved disastrous.
Take one example, the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT), which involved over 12,000 middle-aged American men with high cholesterol. Half received treatment for hypertension, intensive counselling to quit smoking, and advice on changing their diet to lower cholesterol. The other half were told to address their health problems however they desired.
After seven years, the trial reported that mortality rates between the two groups were not significantly different.
The MRFIT results should have acted as a wake-up call, but because they did not fit with the by-then-established dogma, they were explained away by various means and quietly forgotten.
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The history of research in this area is littered with poor science, muddled thinking and confusion, which is still with us today.
Waterlooville, Hampshire, UK
