Oops.........................

...................A cautionary tale for those who believe in "settled science."  Forty years ago, there was a dietary fork in the road:  who would be the villain - sugar or saturated fat.  It is a longish and very interesting tale. It is told here.  The fruit of this bad science is our current obesity epidemic.  And it didn't have to be  this way.  An excerpt to set the stage:

In 1980, after long consultation with some of America’s most senior nutrition scientists, the US government issued its first Dietary Guidelines. The guidelines shaped the diets of hundreds of millions of people. Doctors base their advice on them, food companies develop products to comply with them. Their influence extends beyond the US. In 1983, the UK government issued advice that closely followed the American example.

The most prominent recommendation of both governments was to cut back on saturated fats and cholesterol (this was the first time that the public had been advised to eat less of something, rather than enough of everything). Consumers dutifully obeyed. We replaced steak and sausages with pasta and rice, butter with margarine and vegetable oils, eggs with muesli, and milk with low-fat milk or orange juice. But instead of becoming healthier, we grew fatter and sicker.

thanks craig