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Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

ucsf.edu

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Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#41
post #2

This meme is very healthy among MAHA, and Secretary Kennedy is overseeing an overhaul of the Dietary Guidelines, recasting saturated fat as a health food. There is a lot of speculation that we will soon see a new food pyramid that is an inverted version of the last one. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/10/08/nx... I wonder if it will keep flipping as administrations change. Edit: The new guidelines…

What annoys me the most is that sat fat is a huge way that sugary products are made more palatable to people. People love butter. It is every chef's 2nd favorite tool, just after salt.

Butter is only a favorite because Lard has been some demonized that no chef would ever use it anymore.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#42
post #9
post #3

Maybe I read too much history - but hasn't Big Sugar been known for "nothing that a slave trader wouldn't do" ethics for the past 300+ years?

It is beyond me how anyone can expect any business (especially public traded) to have any ethics whatsoever.

They’re out there. I find it more productive to search for and financially support such businesses, rather than adopt the doomer pessimistic anticapitalism take.

For example I just bought a Concept2 RowErg rowing machine. They sell literally every piece and part on their website so it’s end user repairable. The metrics integrate with a ton of apps, so you’re not locked into their app/ecosystem and there’s no subscription. It’s the polar opposite of Peloton and Hydrox.

Unfortunately a lot of these honest businesses are one generation away from potentially selling out everything the founders built, but I’ll continue doing my best to keep them around while they exist.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#43
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a lot of speculation that we will soon see a new food pyramid that is inverted. Pretty much everyone I know understands that the food pyramid is the product of various lobbies coming together and does not represent a legitimate theory of diet or nutrition. That is independent of their politics or opinions about RFK. I don't think a change to the food pyramid would change anyone's actions, people haven't ta…

"Pretty much everyone I know understands that the food pyramid is the product of various lobbies" Maybe adults, but probably not the people who were taught the food pyramid - children. Edit: changed the tense to acknowledge this was in the past. Thought that was obvious since the food pyramid was a thing of the past.

Definitely agree with the concern here, but this is not a problem unique to the food pyramid. Children will be taught all kinds of propaganda if they attend a public school. It's part of the cost, just not the part that is taken from tax dollars.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#44
post #12

When this news first came out it was mind blowing, but at the same time I don't entirely get it. So the money quote seems to be: > The literature review heavily criticized studies linking sucrose to heart disease, while ignoring limitations of studies investigating dietary fats. They paid a total of 2 people $50,000 (edit: in 2016 dollars). That doesn't seem like enough to entirely shape worldwide discourse around nu…

I am only surprised this came out of UCSF and Robert Lustig's name is not on it, since it's often a topic in his books.

Maybe nutrition-health connection is more complex than can be shown by these early studies, and the big lobbying money only needs one study to get congressional support some putative scientific backing, the entire anti science funding arm of Congress uses one factoid about a shrimp treadmill for decades and the entire antivax movement is built on that widely discredited Wakefield paper. https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/shrimp-treadmill-study-co...

Anyways here's a recent study showing fat/sugar intake and nanoplastic correlation. https://www.inrae.fr/en/news/nanoplastics-have-diet-dependen...

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#45
post #12

When this news first came out it was mind blowing, but at the same time I don't entirely get it. So the money quote seems to be: > The literature review heavily criticized studies linking sucrose to heart disease, while ignoring limitations of studies investigating dietary fats. They paid a total of 2 people $50,000 (edit: in 2016 dollars). That doesn't seem like enough to entirely shape worldwide discourse around nu…

Or maybe the combination is the problem. I couldn’t consume much sugar on its own nor much cream but put the two together in ice cream and I could eat it all day long.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#46
A casual look at where people live the oldest, what they eat, and what's recommended tell you all you need to know about food recommendations then and now.

It's a field where actual long term controlled experiments are impossible, confounding variables are everywhere, and multiple lobbies have vested interests in the outcomes.

I take everything with a grain of salt apart from studies of harm when sources are credible and numerous and even then, I'm not fully confident.

The only current advice I follow is avoiding industrially processed food. That sounds like a sound one as this kind of food is basically terra incognita. It's just applying the precaution principle.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#47
post #12

When this news first came out it was mind blowing, but at the same time I don't entirely get it. So the money quote seems to be: > The literature review heavily criticized studies linking sucrose to heart disease, while ignoring limitations of studies investigating dietary fats. They paid a total of 2 people $50,000 (edit: in 2016 dollars). That doesn't seem like enough to entirely shape worldwide discourse around nu…

communication before the internet was very slow.

Hype or getting viral is not necessarily science so its not clear when and how and why one paper suddenly becomes very known.

We know what sugar and others do, people are probably ignorant or not but its not billions are dead directly, people struggle a little bit more, the statistics number goes up. Now talk to anyone who likes to drink and eat that stuff everyday, do you think they care? no they do not.

Then you have the wrong people sponsoring this.

Fraud etc.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but do you trust Big Butcher?

Based on the history of the past 1-ish century, I trust Big Meat & Dairy to have less capability for and competence at evil than Big Sugar. Because otherwise we'd have been hearing far more "Fat is Fine, Carbs are Crap" messages.

Well, there are essential amino acids and essential fatty acids, but no essential carbs.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The food pyramid went away over twenty years ago. It was discontinued in 2005, and the current guidelines are at https://www.fns.usda.gov/cnpp/myplate which launched in 2011.

Which are crafted by individuals with strong financial ties to the meat, dairy, or egg industries, thus should be disregarded by any reasonable person.

Yes, but I have distinct memories of these nutrition facts being taught to us in school for years, and our teachers asking us to report back how well we conformed to this supposed ideal diet as homework prior to any possible expectation that we children could be informed consumers.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The food pyramid went away over twenty years ago. It was discontinued in 2005, and the current guidelines are at https://www.fns.usda.gov/cnpp/myplate which launched in 2011.

Which are crafted by individuals with strong financial ties to the meat, dairy, or egg industries, thus should be disregarded by any reasonable person.

Going through that link, it's hard to see where you came to that conclusion? It seems to have pretty reasonable dietary advice.
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