An 18-page U.S. dietary guideline issued in 1977 [US Gov’t Printing Office] that called for Americans to consume more sugar-producing carbohydrates from bread, rice and pasta and to limit intake of fat and cholesterol, in particular saturated fat, is suddenly being abandoned 37 years later.  [Time Magazine Feb 9, 2015]

The realization that millions of Americans have been massively misled by food and nutrition experts comes without apologies from any group that represents modern medicine.

It’s not that newly understood food science has forced changes in fat intake guidelines. There was never ANY evidence to support the dietary The Red Wine Diet: Dri... Roger Corder Best Price: $0.24 Buy New $9.88 (as of 09:20 UTC - Details) recommendations issued in 1977!  There was no evidence whatsoever that eating less fat would translate into fewer cases of heart disease or death.  [Open Heart – British Medical Journal 2015]

Political from the start

An examination of this report’s authors should have been a tip off.  Leading members of Congress co-authored this misdirected report that is now being emphatically denounced.  From the start it was a political document as much as it was a scientific one.

A hidden agenda

There were three prominent experts from the Harvard School of Public Health, the Rockefeller Foundation and University of California San Francisco whose opinions were largely relied upon.  One of these so-called experts raises eyebrows.

On the dietary guideline panel was Beverly Winikoff, MD, advocate of abortion and population control programs.  What was Beverly Winikoff doing on this panel?  She was no nutrition expert. [Columbia University School of Public Health] The Rosedale Diet Rosedale, Ron Best Price: $0.25 Buy New $5.98 (as of 01:10 UTC - Details)

Which begs the question: was the effort to reduce fat and cholesterol intake in the American diet a covert effort to reduce fertility and birth rates and control population growth?  There certainly weren’t as many fertility clinics in past generations as there are today.  Fats and cholesterol are required to produce estrogen and testosterone.  Did fat phobia cause all the anguish barren women have faced in recent decades?

There is evidence that males who consume less saturated fat and more unsaturated fat produce less testosterone.  [Journal Steroid Biochemistry Jan 20, 1984; Journal Steroid Biochemistry March 1983] Similarly, reduction of dietary fat results in lower estrogen levels. [Journal National Cancer Institute March 17, 1999]  Low saturated fat in the diet is associated with female infertility. [Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare Aug 2010]

And it is now realized that the shift away from dietary fat and towards carbohydrates that the 1977 guideline recommended spawned the current diabesity epidemic.  [Journal Nutrition Jan 2015]

Ingrained fat phobia

This factitious report resulted in a fat-phobic America.  Fat phobia is so ingrained now it may be difficult to reverse. Breaking the Sugar Hab... Wertheim, Margaret L Best Price: $1.50 Buy New $9.99 (as of 01:50 UTC - Details)

How the recommendations of this select committee of dieticians and politicians misdirected America into eating a diet that was never satisfying (lack of satiation) and lowered sex hormone and mood levels while fattening and diabeticizing America is inexplicable.  Did the entire medical profession line their own pockets by written policy to ensure there would be more than an ample amount of disease to treat?

Charts from the 1977 report (shown below) show seven published dietary studies never varied significantly (no more than 1-2%) for heart deaths or all deaths as visualized by the distance of squares from a midline in the chart.  Using their own evidence, the guideline was scientifically bogus.

Figure 2

Then came the cholesterol-lowering drugs The Cantin Ketogenic D... Cantin, Elaine Best Price: $1.75 Buy New $16.50 (as of 03:50 UTC - Details)

In the wake of this guideline the first FDA approved cholesterol lowering statin drug, Mevacor, was approved in 1987.   [Atherosclerosis Supplements Oct 2004]  Mevacor failed to reduce coronary artery disease mortality rates but the FDA never removed it from the market but rather chose to allow pharmaceutical companies to submit more powerful liver-toxic statin drugs for approval.

An authoritative study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed elevated cholesterol is not a risk factor for mortality or heart disease. [Journal American Medical Association 1994]  But cholesterol drugs were good for business.

Despite the fact cholesterol-lowering statin drugs only prevent one non-mortal heart attack among 200 healthy users over a 5-year period, the sale of statin drugs rose to billions of dollars.  [Bloomberg Business Jan 16, 2008]  More than 25 million Americans were taking them.  Global sales of cholesterol drugs rose above $35 billion in 2006.  [LA Times March 27, 2007]  Halt the sale of these problematic cholesterol-lowering drugs (they are fraught with side effects) and the pharmaceutical sector of the stock market would plunge.

Despite these facts, cardiologists are not expected to abandon their proclivity to prescribe these liver-toxic pills anytime soon.  Cholesterol phobia drives patients to doctors’ offices. Curing the Incurable: ... Levy, MD JD Thomas E Best Price: $22.60 Buy New $18.89 (as of 08:55 UTC - Details)

Fearful heart disease patients can’t imagine living without them.  Yet, in practice, it turns out patients have used statins to give them a license to overeat.  [Reuters April 25, 2014]

The rate of heart disease throughout the world has declined and statin drugs are often attributed to this improvement in heart health.  But the worldwide decline in heart disease began in 1960s, more than a decade before statin drugs came into use.  [Annual Review Public Health 2011]

Circulating cholesterol is not arterial plaque

About 80% of circulating cholesterol particles are produced by the liver.  The remaining 20% comes from the diet.  But circulating cholesterol is not the cholesterol that forms arterial plaque.  Furthermore, most sudden mortal heart attacks are electrical storms, not caused by cholesterol blockage of a coronary artery.  [LewRockwell.com Jan 27, 2015]  So driving down cholesterol numbers has not driven down death rates from heart disease despite contrived science produced by modern medicine.

Listening to advice from cholesterologists may be harmful.  There is such a thing as driving cholesterol levels too low.  Men with low cholesterol How To Make Liposomal ... Hines, Cheryl Buy New $5.97 (as of 01:25 UTC - Details) are five times more likely to kill themselves. [WebMD June 26, 2000]  Low cholesterol is associated with depression, anxiety among women.  Low cholesterol levels are also associated with cancer. [National Library of Medicine 2014]  A large study involving thousands of middle aged and senior men showed those subjects with total cholesterol levels below 170 had the highest death rates.  [Lancet Aug 2001]

Cholesterol particles (lipoproteins) are necessary to maintain mood, produce sex hormones and transport key antioxidants (vitamin E, beta carotene, lycopene, lutein) to tissues.  [Bipolar Disorders March 2000; Journal Nutrition 1990; FASEB Journal April 1996]  You aren’t healthy if your liver is not making cholesterol.

Cholesterol-phobic individuals with heart problems who now need something to replace their fear of cholesterol may want to investigate the work of cardiologist Lester Morrison who cured heart disease in the 1970s. [Knowledge of Health Jan 28, 2010]  Or learn about another overlooked cholesterol particle called lipoprotein (a). [Knowledge of Health Aug 4, 2013]  Three scientifically valid artery cleansing regimens Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C... Buy New $32.95 (as of 10:05 UTC - Details) you can do at home have been described by this author. [Knowledge of Health July 12, 2013]

If you absolutely must reduce your cholesterol numbers, the use of vitamin C and apple pectin has been proven to remove cholesterol via bile flow. [LewRockwell.com Feb 16, 2009]  The red wine molecule resveratrol (rez-vair-uh-trol) promotes efflux (exit) of cholesterol from the liver rather than toxic drugs that interfere cholesterol production in the liver. [ResveratrolNews.com July 4, 2011]

Like other unfounded phobias, such as arachnophobia (fear of spiders) or fear of flying (aviatophobia), the doctor-induced fear of cholesterol is a disorder that can be overcome.