The New York Times has an interesting article – and video – today on the history of diet advice over the last 40 years. It includes the low-fat fad, the low-carb fad and has some interesting science in it.

Gary Taubes is also in the video. I’m not a big fan of his because I believe he too went to far in supporting, without real basis, low-carb and high-fat diets and claims calories don’t count. I think he’s wrong about that and have written extensive notes about it here.

But he is only part of this report, and I think the video is worth watching and the article worth reading. It’s a 12 minute video, but interesting to watch.

The one piece of news I have come to believe (and it is also highlighted in the video), is the recent research showing that cholesterol in food doesn’t hugely impact your blood cholesterol. I found that true when I eat vegan diets as well. My cholesterol doesn’t go down until I start taking a daily statin. And it doesn’t go up if I eat eggs or other high cholesterol foods. Cholesterol is made by the body. It’s true that high cholesterol is associated with heart disease. But it’s not true that dietary cholesterol is the main cause of blood cholesterol.

I think the one thing all diet advocates seem to agree on though is that added sugars are really bad for you.

Anyway, please check this out, and if you can, watch the “retro report” video here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/04/us/a-healthy-diets-main-ingredients-best-guesses.html