Remember how for decades “experts” recommended “low fat” rather than “low sugar” diets, contributing to the deaths of millions?
John Yudkin, a British nutritionist and former Chair of Nutrition at Queen Elizabeth, London, published in 1972 Pure, White and Deadly. The first publication to anticipate the detrimental health effects due to increased sugar consumption, especially in relation to obesity and heart disease.
His motivation in writing the book is clearly stated “I hope that when you have read this book I shall have convinced you that sugar is really dangerous.”
The book and author suffered criticism at the time, particularly from the sugar industry, food manufacturers, and Ancel Keys, an American physiologist who argued in favour of restricting dietary fat, not sugar, and who sought to ridicule Yudkin’s work. Ironically Ancel Keys went on to formulate the Mediterranean diet.
In later years, Yudkin’s observations came to be accepted. A 2002 cover story about sugar by The New York Times Magazine, “What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?”, attracted attention, and the following year a World Health Organization report recommended that added sugars provide no more than 6–10% of total dietary intake. In 2009 a YouTube video about sugar and high-fructose corn syrup by the pediatric endocrinologist Robert Lustig, highlighted the increasing concern about an obesity epidemic. The subsequent interest led to republshing of Yudkin’s book and the rehabilitation of his reputation.
National Library of Medicine – How the ideology of low fat conquered America.