{"id":10402,"date":"2022-05-19T17:00:39","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T21:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/?p=10402"},"modified":"2022-05-18T18:09:40","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T22:09:40","slug":"another-misguided-diet-trend-debunked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/2022\/05\/19\/another-misguided-diet-trend-debunked\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0Another Misguided Diet Trend Debunked"},"content":{"rendered":"

We continue our series of posts from student’s in MET ML 619, The Science of Food and Cooking, with Professor Valerie Ryan, with this entry from gastronomy student Adrian Bresler.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

We owe a lot to scientists who cure diseases, increase crop yields and even fly us to the moon.\u00a0 But scientists do not always get it right.\u00a0 One clear example is related to their unyielding certainty surrounding the impact of dietary fat and cholesterol on health and mortality in the US in the mid to late 20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Here are the facts: Anti-fat sentiment began in full force in the US in the 1980s and continued through the 1990s in response to a number of scientific studies identifying American high fat diets as the main cause of heart disease and the rise in obesity (Johns and Oppenheimer 2018).\u00a0 Fueled by government agency recommendations, widespread coverage by the media, and increased public interest, food companies were only too happy to launch significant numbers of new low fat and nonfat versions of products heretofore available only in their original \u2018full fat\u2019 forms.<\/p>\n

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Knowing that the new low fat variants also needed to taste good in order to be acceptable to the American consumer, in spite of the removal of some or all of the fat content, manufacturers found that they needed to substitute or add ingredient(s) that could either mimic the taste of fat or provide mechanisms for making the product taste more palatable (Colla, Costanzo and Gamlath 2018).\u00a0 The answer often relied on an increase in sugars in various forms.\u00a0 Moreover, the food industry invested heavily in Research & Development, leading to the discovery of new ingredients never before consumed by humans, or resulting in the introduction of new methods used in food processing that could deliver on the promise to reduce all fats, regardless of type, from diets. These replacements would come in the form of carbohydrates, fats and protein (Frankel Cardiovascular Center 2020).<\/p>\n

One of the simplest methods for reducing unwanted fat from baking recipes was to substitute carbs for fats. \u00a0Replacements were not only of increased sugars, but also fruit and vegetable purees, gums and fibers (Hayek and Ibrahim 2013). \u00a0And while these replacements did not impart all of the characteristics of fats, they could partially replace their texture, mouthfeel, moistures and flavors (Zbikowska and Kowalska 2016).\u00a0 By using carbohydrate replacements, manufacturers could also claim the advantage of using \u201cnaturally occurring ingredients\u201d despite a similar calorie load to the full fat product.\u00a0 This \u201cnatural\u201d substitution had the support of many cookbook authors and magazine writers who provided home cooks with recipes that cut out or reduced fats and instead incorporated purees, often apple or banana.\u00a0 In spite of the scientific studies that showed mixed results in taste tests involving the use of fruit\/vegetable purees in baked products, the promised health benefits often outweighed the lack of enthusiasm; for example, cookies, biscuits and crackers were more tolerable to consumers while cakes seemed to turn rubbery and hard (Colla, Costanzo and Gamlath 2018). \u00a0The most acceptable versions of the recipes were a combination of purees and a reduced amount of fats (Colla, Costanzo and Gamlath 2018).<\/p>\n

In fact, my favorite banana bread recipe from the 1990s called for applesauce instead of butter or oil.\u00a0 The only fat in the recipe came from the yolk of one egg.\u00a0 My children loved it\u2014perhaps it was the generous amount of sugar that made it popular, certainly not the banana bread\u2019s texture which resembled that of an eraser after a day or so.<\/p>\n

One of the more controversial examples of fat substitutes was a fat-based product, Olestra, developed by Proctor & Gamble (P&G) and introduced to the public in the late 1990s as a core ingredient in \u2018Wow\u2019 chips.\u00a0 The fat normally found in snack foods was replaced by a newly laboratory-developed substance:\u00a0 sucrose molecules bound with eight fatty acids\u2014constituting molecules too large to be absorbed through the intestine which therefore contributed no<\/u> calories to the body (Bimal and Guonong 2006).\u00a0 Unfortunately, the severe gastrointestinal distress they caused, as well as the corresponding loss of fat soluble vitamins required that P&G place a warning label on all bags of Wow chips (Nestle 2013).\u00a0 What started as a promising new tool in the fight against dietary fat became a case study for business school students.\u00a0 Few countries permitted the sale of Olestra as a food additive.\u00a0 Wow chips are no longer sold anywhere.<\/p>\n

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Compare that to the third method of fat substitution:\u00a0 one centered around protein-based products.\u00a0 The best example: Simplesse.\u00a0 Developed by a subsidiary of Monsanto as a fat replacement, Simplesse is a low-calorie whey protein (or egg white protein) concentrate introduced in 1988 that is still found in many products (Widder 1988).\u00a0 A stroll down the dairy aisle of a supermarket today will reveal a myriad of low fat and nonfat cottage cheeses, spreadable cheeses, ice creams and yogurts that contain the whey protein additive.\u00a0 The minute particles of whey proteins create the mouthfeel of fat by giving a creaminess to these products that was lost when the original fat was removed (Marcus 2013).\u00a0 The substitution of whey protein for fat translates to an 85% reduction in calories per gram of ingredient (Haddix 1988).\u00a0 A shortcoming: the additive can only be used in uncooked food.\u00a0 Cooking the whey protein denatures the protein and causes it to coagulate.\u00a0 This has not stopped Simplesse from becoming quite successful;\u00a0 try to find a full fat yogurt in the dairy case.\u00a0 Not so easy.<\/p>\n

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To get a better understanding of the impact of these new foods on the American diet, I spoke with nutritionist and registered dietitian Elyse Sosin, who has over forty years of experience advising and teaching adults and children about nutritional health in NYC. She began by describing the overwhelming influence the low-fat\/no fat diet craze had in the late 1980s. \u00a0Eating full fat or high cholesterol products bore a stigma.\u00a0 For example, Sosin distinctly remembers that, at the beginning of her career, the mere act of selecting a plate of eggs in the hospital cafeteria where she worked caused her to be scolded by a colleague, \u201cI can\u2019t believe you\u2019re a nutritionist and you are eating that!\u201d\u00a0 And, she said, despite the encouragement by professionals writing newspaper columns and magazine articles supporting this behavior, the lack of fat and the inclusion of higher levels of sugar in processed foods left some people feeling hungry \u2013a real setup for weight loss failure.\u00a0 Through the years she has seen the diet rules change from very low-fat<\/u> to no-saturated-fat<\/u> to no-trans-fat<\/u> to the current rallying cry of low-carb<\/u> by diet gurus.\u00a0 These diet regimens, Sosin believes, that declare a particular food or category of food \u2018bad\u2019 are often too rigid and can lead to their abandonment on the part of those people following the advice of practitioners and trying to maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Even the Food Pyramid, a presentation of healthy food groups introduced here by the US Department of Agriculture in 1992, placed complex carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice, cereal) at the bottom or base, suggesting that people consume 6 to 11 servings per day (Sosin 2022).\u00a0 As a result, the meat and dairy industries suffered.\u00a0 Fats and oils were at the top along with sweets;\u00a0 these were the \u2018bad\u2019 foods to be eaten sparingly.<\/p>\n

So despite the minority of skeptics who questioned the validity of the causal relationship of dietary fat and cholesterol on heart disease and the impact of encouraging millions of people to eat more low fat\/no fat snacks by promising them ultimate weight loss, newspapers, magazines and the airwaves flooded consumers with advice about fat avoidance (La Berge 2008).\u00a0\u00a0 Did the introduction of these low fat, no fat products improve the diet and overall health of Americans?\u00a0 Our diet was and is too high in fat. And, according to CDC statistics, approximately 15% of the US adult population was obese in 1980; by the early 2000s that figure rose to over 30% of US adults (Ogden and Carroll 2010).\u00a0\u00a0 And by 2018, over 40% (Sosin 2022). Heart disease is still the leading cause of death in the US.\u00a0 There is no shortage of possible contributing factors:\u00a0 genetics, sedentary lifestyle, abundance of cheap processed foods, environmental toxins, food deserts, computer games, television, celebrities that promote questionable products, local customs and traditions, ethnic background, government regulations and subsidies.\u00a0 The list goes on and on.\u00a0 Therefore, we understand that neither a quick fix nor a single recommendation exists that will address all of these issues.\u00a0 But the answers will<\/u> come from those scientists, in a multitude of disciplines, who will need to get it right next time.<\/p>\n

Works Cited:<\/u><\/p>\n

Bimal, Chitrakar & Guonong, Zhang. 2006. Olestra: A Solution to Food Fat? Food Reviews International<\/em>, 22(3), 245\u2013258.<\/p>\n

Colla, Costanzo, A., & Gamlath, S. 2018. Fat Replacers in Baked Food Products.\u00a0Foods<\/em>,\u00a07<\/em>(12), 192.<\/p>\n

Frankel Cardiovascular Center, University of Michigan. 2020. Date of access 3\/5\/2022.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.umcvc.org\/health-library\/uq1419<\/a><\/p>\n

Haddix, Carol. February 4, 1988. Chicago Tribune. <\/em>\u201cThat Phenomenon Simplesse \u2018Supplies the Feeling of Fat\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hayek, Saeed and Ibrahim, Salam A. 2013. Consumer acceptability of chocolate chip cookies using applesauce as a fat (butter) substitute.\u00a0Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture<\/em>,\u00a025<\/em>(3), 159.<\/p>\n

Johns, David Merritt, and Gerald M. Oppenheimer. 2018. “Was there ever really a \u201csugar conspiracy\u201d?.”\u00a0Science\u00a0359, no. 6377: 747-750.<\/p>\n

La Berge, Ann F. 2008. \u00a0How the Ideology of Low Fat Conquered America,\u00a0Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences<\/em>, Volume 63, Issue 2, April 2008, Pages 139\u2013177.<\/p>\n

Marcus, Jacqueline. 2013. Culinary Nutrition: The Science and Practice of Healthy Cooking. Academic Press.<\/p>\n

McGee, Harold.\u00a02004. On food and cooking: the science and lore of the kitchen<\/em>. New York: Scribner.<\/p>\n

Nestle. Marion. 2013. Food politics\u202f: how the food industry influences nutrition and health<\/em> (Revised and expanded 10th anniversary ed..). University of California Press.<\/p>\n

Ogden, Cynthia and Carroll, Margaret. 2010. Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity and Extreme Obesity Among Adults, Trends 1960-1962 through 2007-2008. Center for Disease Control, <\/em>Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.<\/p>\n

Sosin, Elyse. 2022. Oral Interview, March 10, 2022.<\/p>\n

Widder, Pat. January 28, 1988. Chicago Tribune. \u201cFirm Takes Guilt from Fat\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u017bbikowska, & Kowalska, M. 2016. The use of apple fiber as a fat substitute in the manufacture of bakery products.\u00a0Journal of Food Processing and Preservation<\/em>,\u00a041<\/em>(6), e13241\u2013n\/a.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We continue our series of posts from student’s in MET ML 619, The Science of Food and Cooking, with Professor Valerie Ryan, with this entry from gastronomy student Adrian Bresler. We owe a lot to scientists who cure diseases, increase crop yields and even fly us to the moon.\u00a0 But scientists do not always get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2776,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,10,25,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10402"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2776"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10408,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10402\/revisions\/10408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}