That news has been plastered across newspapers, television news, and the Internet this week: In the 1960s, sugar industry lobbyists funded research to link fat and cholesterol to heart disease and skip the connection of sugar to disease. In the 1970s, a Senate Select Committee sided with Ancel Keys’s low-fat, high carbohydrate theory of weight management and produced the Dietary Goals for the United States, also known as the “McGovern Report.” The low fat age was born, and a grand diet experiment began across the country. We had Snackwells, we could eat bread again, sugar was okay, and we could eat anything as long as it was low or non-fat.
As a country, our obesity rate doubled as they replaced fat with sugar.
Robert Atkins resurrected the high protein diet plan, and others followed, but authors were skewered and dismissed as being out of touch with heart-healthy methods.
I know I was hungry for decades, doing the diet yo-yo while cutting fat as much as possible, using willpower to try to stare down sugar cravings, sometimes starving myself, working out, and getting nowhere. I did actually lose my weight the last time doing a low-fat, low calorie diet, powering through on determination and sorting out my emotional stuff. It did work, but I was hungry and cranky until I added fat back into my plan. Then I was no longer hungry nor cranky. I could stick with that.
I do believe we’re all different. Nutritional science is complex and individualized. Some bodies do run more efficiently with more carbohydrates, some with more fat and protein, and some on a balance. It’s important to figure out what works for YOU. Still, with sugar’s highly addictive nature, it seems reducing sugar is a great place to start.
My grandmother always said the way to lose was to cut the starch and sugar from your diet. Wise woman, my Nan.
If you need a little help finding your best fuel mix or disarming those triggers that drive you to eat for comfort, don’t hesitate to contact me. We can figure it out.
All the best,
Renée
