Since the 1950s, the medical industry and world public health organizations have subscribed to the Lipid Hypothesis: eating red meats and saturated fats will increase the cholesterol level in the blood stream; the cholesterol will then clog arteries, lead to heart disease, and eventually kill. The solution is simple: eat less red meat and saturated fats. If that does not lower your cholesterol level, then take statin drugs.
However, to this date, the Lipid Hypothesis is still just that. The link between dietary meat and fat consumption and cholesterol level has not been established. Most interestingly, the link between heightened cholesterol level to heart disease was never established either. This lipid hypothesis is more like religion than science.
On the other side, there is the fructose hypothesis camp: excessive fructose consumption leads to increased free radicals. Free radicals attack various parts of the body, particularly the liver and arteries, and cause diabetes and plagues. Of course, they also kill. This camp says that refined carbohydrate is the root of all evil, not fat.
Which to believe? Are both actually safe?
We could all become vegetarians (in fact, vegans) and also abstain from all forms of refined carbohydrates such as sugar and breads. There are Asian monks that live long and healthy. We can live just like them.
There is a cynical claim that the US government colluded with the food and medicine industries to turn us all into farm animals. The tax money subsidizes the corn industry that feeds the food industries to poison us addictively, so that we must pay the medicine industry to prolong our lives.
What to do?
The industries exist to make money, pure and simple. Maybe there are CEOs who would rather make less money to produce healthier choices, but most would first go for the “win-win” strategy: optimal profits based on sound health claims. We, the consumers, must vote with our wallets and use the power of the market to drive the industries. To do so, we must be educated. Michael Pollan advised us to eat like our great grand parents.
As for me, I am skipping dessert most of the time, but won’t refuse a good pie when it comes along. A nice juicy burger is great, but only once a month. Yep, striving for moderation in everything.