Why Low Fat Diets don’t work for Type 2 Diabetes
The Low Fat Era was a disaster
Several years back, the monumental task of recommending an optimal diet for type 2 diabetics was assigned to Dr. Richard Kahn, then the chief medical and scientific officer of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Like any good scientist, he began by reviewing the available published data.
“When you look at the literature, whoa is it weak. It is so weak”, he said. But that was not an answer that the ADA could give. People demanded dietary advice. So, without any evidence to guide him one way or the other, Dr. Kahn went with the generic advice to eat a low fat, high carbohydrate diet. This was the same general diet advice given to public at large.
The United States Department of Agriculture’s food pyramid would guide food choices. The foods that formed the base of the pyramid, the ones to be eaten preferentially were grains and other refined carbohydrates. These are the exact foods that caused the greatest increase in blood glucose. This was also the precise diet that failed to halt obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemics in generations of Americans.
