The FastDay Forum

For years I've been getting a newsletter - 16 pages, monthly - called Nutrition Action. It is put out by a non profit, CSPI, and they have a conventional low fat approach to diet. I think it's a good political operation, as they have been responsible for such important steps as helping to improve school lunches in America, getting rid of trans fats, etc.

But now that there are some very basic disagreements among researchers about fats and carbs, I've been waiting for the magazine to address the issue. This month they did. The cover story is "Fat Under Fire: New Findings or Shaky Science?" It is a question and answer session with one expert, a Dutch professor of nutrition and "world renowned expert on diet and cardiovascular disease" named Martijn Katan. I guess they weren't willing or able to find someone behind one of the controversial studies they mention to interview for the other side, and I am troubled that they presume to write "Here are the facts behind the headlines." Does CSPI think we should count on one researcher, even a world renowned one, to give us the facts? Apparently, yes. And of course, he says that the controversial studies are shaky science.

I wish I could point you all to this article, but I don't think it's available without a subscription.

@Carorees, are you by any chance familiar with CSPI?

[carorees]

Hi WendyJane

I've not heard of the CSPI but I would say that the studies that supposedly show the benefits of low fat are just as shaky! Almost no studies in the field of nutrition are high quality sadly.

One of the funny (and no not haha funny) things about CSPI is that they are the ones who lobbied for the fast food chains to stop using the lard they were using for their fries and such and pushed the very fats that are now found to contain Trans Fats. To my knowledge they never admitted they were wrong they just shifted gears and started campaigning against the Trans Fats. (my view is that generally the closer to nature the better, and the lard was at least unprocessed).

I believe they have a long and dubious history that repeats that kind of situation pretty regularly. Low Carbers despise them. Especially the guy who made the movie Fat Head (which is a fun one as documentaries go).
http://www.fathead-movie.com/?s=cspi&x=-448&y=-1580