Maggie's Farm

“Fats and carbs, one of the biggest mistakes in nutrition research.”

An article in the “Real Clear Science” should be an honest science based article. But the author resorted to a dishonest practice by implying certain opinions expressed in 1970 were in fact “settled science”. By implication she is saying all of science was complicit in a stupid and incorrect belief that we know know to be false. Her critical example was “Scientists in the 1970s concluded that the human body could not convert carbohydrates into fat.” She failed to cite her source for this claim but anyone who was alive and paying attention in 1970 knows that in fact that was not the belief and we have always known that your body can turn everything and anything you digest into body fat.
So what was her intent with this subterfuge? It seems that the food bigots or activists cannot make their case without some lies and disinformation. So first she needed to disparage science and secondly to spread doubt about the mainstream theories. How else can she prop up her own theory?
So, WHAT, exactly is “harmful” about carbs? The entire human population from the time we came down from trees and before has searched for and eaten carbs. What, exactly, do carbs do that is so terrible? There is of course a disease; diabetes, which can be controlled to some extent by a specific diet. But for the large majority of people all of whom eat carbs, what is the harm? Does eating carbs “cause” heart disease, cancer, strokes? Does it cause early death? This may sound a little over the top but indeed there are some who claim that carbs indeed cause illness and contribute to poor health. So is it true? There is zero evidence of it but there is a theory AND there is an industry, a multi-billion dollar industry of books, supplements, speaking tours and diets that benefits from this pseudo-science. All of these activists and special interests are working overtime to outlaw sugar and white rice and flour are next. Why?
Mostly because that is what many of these people actually believe. The internet and books are full of these claims. No proof but claims galore. If it were true then there would be no better opportunity to prove it then the U.S. diet. We eat carbs every day all our life our life spans should be plummeting and our serious illnesses should be increasing. But the opposite is happening. We are eating more carbs than ever and every year our life expectancy increases and the rate of most illnesses decreases. It would seem that carbs, or fats or protein (meat) do not have harmful effects on our health.
So why do these somewhat bizarre claims persist? It goes back to the simple fact that there are indeed some diseases that need and benefit from a restrictive diet. Inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, etc. All diseases which are miraculously helped by restricting and controlling what you eat. This inevitably leads to people jumping to the conclusion that those food items that must be restricted in fact “caused” those diseases. This brings me back to when I was a child and my dear grandmother would tell me not to put sugar on my cereal because it would cause “sugar diabetes”. Now my grandmother didn’t know in the 40’s that sugar doesn’t “cause” diabetes but in 2015 there is simply no excuse for unscientific superstition based medical/health beliefs.
Carbs aren’t gonna make you sick or kill you. Go ahead, eat a potato and put some sugar on your oatmeal. The pseudo-scientists are wrong.