Experts Quietly Admitted They Were Wrong About This for Years

Fat Was Not the Villain

The low-fat dietary guidance that dominated public health messaging from the 1980s through the early 2000s has been substantially revised. The large-scale studies that were intended to confirm the benefits of low-fat eating — including the Women’s Health Initiative, which enrolled nearly 49,000 participants — largely failed to demonstrate the expected benefits for cardiovascular disease and cancer.




Meanwhile, research on the Mediterranean diet, which is relatively high in fat from olive oil, nuts, and fish, has shown consistent cardiovascular benefits. The experts were wrong, and the field has acknowledged it, albeit without the fanfare that accompanied the original guidelines.