How did we come to believe saturated fat and cholesterol are bad for us?

Re:How did we come to believe saturated fat and cholesterol ... by bad_user on Friday July 20, 2012 @06:01AM (#4270118)

     People in the 70s and 80s ate nearly as much 
     processed junk as we do

I suspect you're from the US. Your statement is simply not true, at least not for Central/Eastern Europe.

For instance in Romania we had no McDonalds until the early 1990s and they were amongst the first to enter, before other junk food providers like KFC, Burger King and such. One friend from the US visiting me was surprised that we only have 2 or 3 Starbucks joints in our capital that has a population of more than 2 million people.

And regarding preprocessed junk, the trend is very recent here. People used to laugh at such things as low-fat milk, or frozen French-fries / Pizza.

The result: I've never seen so many obese people in my life as I've seen in the US, but we're catching up.

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Re:How did we come to believe saturated fat and cholesterol ... by jonnathanson on Friday July 20, 2012 @11:09AM (#4271108)

Sorry, I should have clarified that my implied frame of reference was the US. But you're right. There seems to be a pretty linear correlation between obesity rates and the "American way of life," however we want to quantify its variables: processed foods, sleep deprivation, etc. Generally speaking, the pursuit of convenience at the cost of all other considerations.

And I don't deny that processed foods are major factors in the obesity problem, and probably necessary factors. But I'm saying that they don't seem entirely sufficient to account for the increased obesity rates within the US, which has been gorging itself on processed junk for 30+ years now.

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