Some truths; some falsehoods

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  Nov, 2003  by Beatrice Trum Hunter

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Low-Fat Lies, High-Fat Frauds, and the Healthiest Diet in the World

by Kevin Vigilante, MD and Mary Flynn, PhD

LifeLine Press, 1 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001 USA

Recipes, references, index, quality paperback; 334 pp.; $12.95

The low-fat diet has been promoted officially as a healthy diet by the federal government, and abetted by food processors eager to sell a variety of low-fat foods. Since 1977, the US Senate declared war on dietary fats. The Senate's Subcommittee on Nutrition and Human Needs declared the low-fat diet as one that prevents heart disease, and this pronouncement has been the basis for national strategy ever since. The false premise was adopted by the National Cholesterol Education Program, by the American Heart Association, and by many health professionals.

Despite these pronouncements, as noted by Vigilante and Flynn in Low-Fat Lies, High-Fat Frauds, low-fat diets are hazardous to health. Although low-fat diets may lower the low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) they also lower high-density lipoproteins (HDLs). A recent study suggests that in some people, low-fat foods also may convert LDLs into a more dangerous type of LDL, which plays a significant role in heart disease. Additionally, despite the plethora of low-fat foods, Americans suffer from more and more obesity. Vigilante and Flynn demonstrate why low-fat diets do not work.

The authors discussion of high-fat diets is less satisfactory. Some of the information presented goes counter to the evidence regarding the benefits of saturated fats. The authors are so eager to promote the Mediterranean diet as the "healthiest diet in the world" that they distort the values of the high-fat/low carbohydrate diet. Hence, this book is recommended reading solely for the first part of the book, with the discussion of the shortcomings of the low-fat diet. The remainder of the book is not recommended. The authors fall into the trap of orthodox thinking about the high-fat/low-carbohydrate diets, which is simplistic, distorted, and fails to hold up to objective scientific evidence.

Dr. Vigilante is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University. Mary Flynn, his co-author, is also a faculty member at Brown University, where she teaches nutrition and maintains a clinical nutrition practice. She has researched the failure of low-fat diets and their negative effects on HDLs and triglycerides. Perhaps it is her contribution to the work that gives it some value.

review by Beatrice Trum Hunter

COPYRIGHT 2003 The Townsend Letter Group
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