Who is the enemy - fat or sugar?

 What to eat to live long?

At various times, the food enemies of mankind have been declared various products associated with overweight and related health problems. Proponents of healthy eating are fighting either fat or sugar as the causes of deadly diseases that shorten life expectancy. OTHER POST

Everyone expects that science will finally give an unambiguous answer as to what to eat in order to live long and not get fat. However, as physician and researcher Jerome Grupman writes in his article for The New Yorker, the science of nutrition does not provide simple answers.

Who is the enemy - fat or sugar?

In the early 1960s, when scientists declared fat dangerous, bacon lovers began switching to salads in the pursuit of lowering cholesterol, but as it turned out, it did not have a significant impact on their health. According to Jerome Grupman, the diet did not pay off for his family, who gave up fat: the author's father died of a heart attack at a young age - just fifty. This prompted Grupman himself to monitor his diet even more closely: and although he limited his intake of fat and, in addition, carbohydrates, he was able to lower his own cholesterol only with the help of prescription drugs. At that time, the author doubted whether it was possible to radically change lives by eliminating one component from the diet.

Since then, scientists have rehabilitated fat, proving that fats are of various types, including "good", and gourmets have relied on avocados or nuts as a source of "good cholesterol". Then, instead of fat, the main culprit of extra pounds and heart disease was called sugar. Carbohydrate restriction is based on the popular Atkins diet, which suggested focusing on proteins and fats, and the newer Paleolithic diet, which offered to eat foods that were available to our ancestors before the transition to a sedentary lifestyle and the beginning of agriculture. The paleo diet therefore excludes dairy products and grains.