Change to deeply ingrained ideas is never like a switch. It meanders through the societal consciousness igniting controversy at it proceeds and gathers momentum. The Banting or LCHF diet is no different. From the mid-1970s when the eminent Dr Ancel Keyes convinced the US Department of Health that fats were injurious to one’s health, as fat correlated with cholesterol, the received wisdom has been that fats except in extreme moderation were to be avoided. Now scientific evidence is inexorably negating this flawed thinking.
The case of the elusive cure for ulcers is illustrative of all the prevailing forces that hobble the forces of change: these are the existing dogma, entrenched industries and supposed scientific evidence buttressing the existing ingrained ideas. This requires the abandonment of a set of well entrenched beliefs that conflict with the new ideas.
Main picture: The British Medical Journal now condones the consumption of fatty food except that the sales assistant must be sternly informed to hold the chips and the bun but to put a few dollops of cream on it.