Dietary fat is an important component of the normal diet of almost all mammals. Collectively, they make up one of the three major nutrient food sources (along with protein and carbohydrates) eligible for consumption. But during the decades of the 20th century, millions of people have been prey to advertising campaigns and misinformation, suggesting that without fat we would all be better.
Early support for a fat-free diet was in fact rooted in sound medical reasoning and was limited to cases where it could prove to be legally beneficial. In 1929, the famous baby expert, writer and reporter Myrtle Meyer Eldred Des Moines Register How some children feel that all dietary fat is a problem, and how non-fat alternatives can help reduce some of the irritation caused by fat. “Buttermilk made from agitated sourmilk is completely fat-free, and for children who stimulate any form of fat, it is a more successful food than skim milk, which cannot be completely fat-free. “She wrote.
Similarly, February 1931, York dispatch Published a column by Dr. Logan Cleandening. In this column, a non-fat diet was recommended to combat a very different medical disorder, inflammation of the gallbladder. “Mild catarrhal cholecystitis is usually medically suitable,” explained Klendening. “The dietary arrangement is based on the known facts of physiology that bile is used to digest fat. Therefore, a fat-free diet is required.”
But even in this era, medically unhealthy anti-fat emotions were brewed with serious consequences. Dr. Philip Ravel Los Angeles Times In July 1933, about a woman who permanently avoided fat on the advice of a doctor to lose 40-45 pounds. “She lost her weight wonderfully,” Ravel wrote. “She occasionally suffered from headaches, but she maintained her strength. In less than two months, she lost 40 pounds. Everything would have been sweet and rosy. Had it not been a great meal Died At the end of her fat-free diet. I think doctors called it a heart block.I do it crazy Fat-free diet — a terrible price for ignorance. “
Basically, she interfered with all of the essential physical functions that are optimized only by dietary fat intake. Both the production of important hormones and the regulation of cell function mandate the presence of fat, and certain forms of vitamin intake (A, D, E, K) can be properly administered to the body only after they have been absorbed. Not to mention what you can do with dietary fats. More simply, zero fat consumption is never a good thing.
Unfortunately, other popular diets in the 1930s and 1940s also focused on removing fat as a temporary ointment for psoriasis and celiac disease.
Dairy begins to be confused
The first true fusion of body fat and dietary fat seems to have come from the active promotion of skim milk by the dairy industry. Newspaper ads have begun to highlight the hawk’s non-fat milk as a necessary tool to improve its appearance.
These ads caused enough confusion about the emergence of new fat-free terms that many nutritionists tried to explain. This was just a new brand of skim milk. Nevertheless, within the next decade, non-fat milk was added with non-fat cheese and non-fat oil. All of these were clearly positioned as calorie cutters that could cause weight loss.
By the time fat-free ice cream and yogurt appeared in the 1970s, nutrition experts were flooded with questions that eating sweets like ice cream might not produce any more body fat. did. To that end, Frederick Starr of Harvard’s Faculty of Nutrition published a syndicated column in 1974 in an unlucky effort to uncover misunderstandings. “The fact that some skim milk yogurt is advertised as 99% fat-free can make consumers believe that yogurt is a low-calorie or’fat-free’food. People who eat sweet yogurt as a dessert, snack, or meal believe that it’s 99% fat-free and therefore low in calories, and serving a half-cup of ice cream or a small sandwich is actually more calorie than a glass of yogurt. Is low, “he explained.
Needless to say, it was deaf. From the 1970s to the 1980s, everything from fat-free soups to fat-free deli meats began to be sold to consumers.
But then in August 1986, nutritionists and nutritionists fought over the issue of fat consumption. The American Heart Association (AHA) has reduced the recommendation to get 40% of all calories from fat to 30%. This is the advice that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has made an exception. Since grams of fat have more than twice the calories of grams of protein and carbohydrates, this reduction required less than 20% of the diet in terms of the actual weight consumed. ..
Cox New Service reported that AHA’s Dr. William Weidman has issued a statement to the effect that there is “significant indirect evidence” that such fat loss has a positive effect. (But he also admitted that it might take “another 30 years” to see if there is any benefit to the change before concluding that “it certainly won’t hurt anyone.” .) AAP President Lawrence Finberg did not enthusiastically agree. “Based on research, we can’t say that we need to limit our fat intake to 30 percent,” he argued. “And I don’t know if that would harm the normal development of the children or cause other problems.”
“Fat Free” fails
In the early 1990s, fat-free foods took over supermarket shelves, and fat-free labels now decorate everything from salad dressings, mayonnaise, sour cream to fig Newtons and other cookies.Jane Snow Akron Beacon Journal The emergence of such non-fat items, reported in June 1992, corresponded to 44% of reported Americans who professed to limit dietary fat, but included catches. I also mentioned. “With a few exceptions, the price of non-fat products is higher than regular products,” Snow writes. “Miracle Whip Free was $ 1.49 per store, but Miracle Whip was $ 1.39. Kraft Free Singles Cheese was $ 2.49 and regular Kraft Singles was $ 2.29.”
Snow also provided a chart showing that the prices paid ultimately make little difference in calories per serving. Fat-free products often offer a material reduction of only 10-20 calories per serving, but if the fat-free product provides more calories.
It’s no wonder that Americans continue to gain weight with these “diet” products, even though they eat a lot of non-fat foods. “Fat-free foods sound magical,” said a spokesman for the American Dietitians Association (now the Academy of Nutrition and Nutrition). Tennessee January 1996. “We may think that we can get fat by eating everything we want, but that’s not the case.”
Marri Murphy Kansas City Star Later that same year, Americans reported that they reduced their fat intake by about 16% between the 1970s and 1990s, but still gained an average of about 12 pounds more than in 1978. Logical Causes — Sugar Consumption — Murphy reported how USDA attributed unwanted weight gain to reduced physical activity. “Many of us seem to be sitting in our fatty acid,” Murphy joked.
But soon the fat-free jig went up. By the late 1990s, the number of American households purchasing such items on a regular basis had decreased by 11 percentage points. Still, it took another 10 years for health columnists to finally drive the stakes that pioneered the center of fat-free exercise. “We sometimes tend to overeat non-fat foods.” Oh, this is fat-free. You can eat as much as you want. “ Rock Hill Herald I wrote, just said what is clear. “Fat-free products have calories, so you have to stick to one serving. Otherwise, you’ll eat as many or more calories as high-fat products.”
Finally, the consumer was finally given a big fat truth.
Ian Douglas
Ian Douglass is a volunteer firefighter, Concept2 rower, SkiErger, and the worst all-American swimmer in recorded history. He also helped professional wrestlers publish autobiographies, helped businessmen by writing coherent ideas, and exaggerated degrees from Michigan and the Northwest.
