It’s clear that U.S. News — which employed an expert panel to rate 40 diets on various criteria — merely recapitulated questionable dietary advice that has gone by a succession of names since the 1970s — “low-fat,” “DASH,” “USDA-style,” “plant-based.” The basic set of recommendations have remained the same, emphasizing plant foods (grains, cereals, fruits and vegetables) over animal products (eggs, regular dairy, meat), and vegetable oils over natural animal fats such as butter.

According to government data, Americans have largely followed these recommendations over the last 50 years, notably increasing their consumption of grains, vegetables and fruits and eating less whole milk, butter, meat and eggs. The outcome? In that time, rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes have skyrocketed. Something has gone terribly wrong.

Why would 25 doctors, dietitians and nutritionists on the U.S. News panel choose a dietary philosophy that has — so far, at least — failed us? They might be entrenched in their opinions, supported by the industries that benefit from these diets, motivated by non-nutrition agendas such as animal-rights activism, or they might simply have fallen into the easy convenience of groupthink.

The loss to would-be healthy eaters is profound. For instance, diets lower in carbohydrates and higher in fat — called, variously, “Atkins,” “paleo,” “ketogenic” or “South Beach,” and based on the simple idea that carbohydrates are uniquely fattening — were all stiffed in the U.S. News rankings. Indeed, the ketogenic diet, which acutely restricts carbohydrates in favor of fat, came in dead last.

That’s too bad: Early results of a current trial reported that Type 2 diabetes symptoms can be reversed in just 10 weeks on such a diet. Subjects suffering from diabetes were educated about carbohydrates and coached over the study period. They effectively cured themselves of their disease, something that mainstream medicine does not even believe possible.

Read the full article at the LA Times.

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