The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss (Why Intermittent Fasting Is the Key to Controlling Your Weight)

by Jason Fung

Several specific dietary goals were set forth. These included •raise consumption of carbohydrates until they constituted 55 percent to 60 percent of calories, and •decrease fat consumption from approximately 40 percent of calories to 30 percent, of which no more than one-third should come from saturated fat. With no scientific evidence, the formerly “fattening” carbohydrate made a stunning transformation. While the guidelines still recognized the evils of sugar, refined grain was as innocent as a nun in a convent. Its nutritional sins were exonerated, and it was henceforth reborn and baptized as the healthy whole grain. Was there any evidence? It hardly mattered. The goals were now the nutritional orthodoxy. Everything else was heathen. If you didn’t toe the line, you were ridiculed. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a report released in 1980 for widespread public consumption, followed the recommendations of the McGovern report closely. The nutritional landscape of the world was forever changed.