Guardian Author Takes on Nutritional Establishment in “The Sugar Conspiracy”

In this April 7, 2016, article about changing dietary recommendations
and rising obesity rates, Ian Leslie resurrects the forgotten work of
John Yudkin, a U.K. nutritionist who in 1972 authored a book titled
Pure, White, and Deadly about the purported dangers of excess sugar
consumption. Drawing parallels between this earlier research and that of
contemporary anti-sugar crusader Robert Lustig, Leslie suggests that the
scientific community effectively silenced Yudkin when his data came into
conflict with the prevailing “fat hypothesis” backed by “brilliant, charismatic,
and combative” Ancel Keys, who posited that dietary fat caused
heart disease and other metabolic diseases.

As Leslie explains, “[The] sharp fluctuations in Yudkin’s stock have had
little to do with the scientific method, and a lot to do with the unscientific
way in which the field of nutrition has conducted itself over the years.
This story, which has begun to emerge in the past decade, has been
brought to public attention largely by skeptical outsiders rather than
eminent nutritionists. In her painstakingly researched book, The Big Fat
Surprise, the journalist Nina Teicholz traces the history of the proposition
that saturated fats cause heart disease, and reveals the remarkable
extent to which its progress from controversial theory to accepted truth
was driven, not by new evidence, but by the influence of a few powerful
personalities, one in particular.“

Issue 599