another response to the low fat study

[Guest guest]

WHI Report: “Low-fat diet may not cut some disease risks; little change seen

in cancer, heart problemsâ€

 

A Clear Case Against Moderation

 

In the early 1990s, the founders of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study

were guests on my syndicated radio show. During these interviews, and on many

other occasions, I challenged Ernst Wynder, MD (now deceased) and Rowan

Chlebowski, MD to teach the women in their study a meaningful

diet—specifically, a very low-fat, plant-food-based, McDougall-type diet—so

that when the day comes that the results are published the real benefits of

healthy eating will be shown. Both insisted that the “moderate diet†they

were using would be adequate. Twelve years and $415 million later, on Wednesday,

February 8, 2006, news headlines about their research findings showed them

wrong. Please understand that I take no joy in being right; rather I am

saddened because now we all must live with the incorrect conclusions that diet

cannot prevent cancer or heart disease.

 

The truth is, this study of nearly 50,000 older women, ages 50 to 79 years, has

only reinforced the well-known fact that “skinning your chicken†and

“drinking low-fat milk†is inconsequential. The Women’s Health Initiative

was not the first, nor is it likely to be the last, study to prove that what

most people consider to be a “reasonable, moderate or prudent diet†is at

best a trivial improvement over the disease-causing, standard American diet.

 

Proof that the low-fat diet intervention used in this study was ineffective is

the report of an average of one pound (0.4 Kg) of weight loss after 8 years of

dieting (compared to those not dieting). Furthermore, the women’s blood

levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, and blood pressures hardly changed

after all that effort. Their dietary histories revealed that even though the

low-fat diet group received “an intensive behavior modification program that

consisted of 18 group sessions in the first year and quarterly maintenance

sessions thereafter,†they continued to eat nearly the same amount of fiber,

protein, red meat, chicken, fish, and grains. The addition of one more serving

of fruits and vegetables daily may have accounted for the 9% reduction in breast

cancer observed for the low-fat group.

 

People worldwide have been, and are still being, betrayed by investigators who

spend taxpayer’s dollars on useless dietary research—and they should not be

forgiven because they have always known better. Since the 1950s studies have

shown that the more plant-foods, and less processed and animal foods,

populations consume, the less breast and colon cancer and heart disease they

will develop. Furthermore, there is no “safe thresholdâ€â€”in other words,

the lower the fat intake, the less the cancer and heart disease. In fact, long

before the Women’s Health Initiative study was conceived, Dr. Ernst Wynder had

published extensively on the benefits of the very-low fat (10%), almost

vegetarian, Japanese diet for prevention and treatment of breast cancer. So why

was a “moderate†diet, instead of the best one, tested?

 

My nearly 40 years of experience, working with hundreds of influential doctors

and scientists, leads me to believe they have a very low opinion of patients and

the public in general. They believe we are too stupid and too disinterested in

our own welfare to make meaningful changes in our diet—specifically, to follow

a plant-food based diet. When I suggest such powerful dietary changes, they

respond with, “That’s unreasonable; no one will follow a vegetarian diet.â€

Even if they were correct, you and I still deserve to know the truth, so that

this option for preventing illnesses and premature death is available to us.

 

The Women’s Heath Initiative should be remembered as the study that inspired

honesty in the scientific community and put an end to ineffective research using

a “sensible diet.†No longer should the excuse that people won’t follow a

truly healthy diet be accepted—we who do so know better. My sentiments about

the “the failure of the low-fat diet†are succinctly summed up by this

recent e-mail to me: “Please come out against this foolish study. I have

become a low-fat vegan, and I have lost 30 lb. or so.â€

 

John McDougall, MD

drmcdougall

McDougall Wellness Center

P.O. Box 14039, Santa Rosa, CA 95402

 

 

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