Gary Taubes

Name
Professor
Title
Date
Gary Taubes
Reasons, why I disagree with Gary Taubes on claims that, restricting dietary fat, confers health benefits
I totally do not agree with Gary Taubes that limiting dietary fat confers any health benefits. The belief merely relies on the fact that consumption of dietary fat increases cholesterol levels that clog arteries and clog arteries and cause coronary artery disease, heart attack, and death. The assumption is however not true because cases of heart disease in America are still very high despite the reduction in fat intake from 40 percent to 30 percent since the early 1970s (Taubes, 2536). Furthermore, a study published in the new English journal of medicine established that the reduction in number of deaths related to heart attack had direct link to proper treatment offered by doctors and not reduction in consumption of dietary fat (Taubes, 2537). The study indicated that the number of medical procedures for heart diseases had increased from 1.2 million to 5.4 million an indication that reduction in consumption of dietary fat had done little to help in reducing heart diseases.
Reduction of dietary fat has also not contributed to reducing obesity that is very dangerous to human health. Obesity rates in the United States of America increased from 14 percent to 22 percent of the population between the 1960s and 1980 despite the reduction in fat intake levels. Obesity has in return increased cases of diabetes that continue to increase chances of heart disease (Taubes, 2538). My disagreement received support from the nurses' health study conducted by Harvard school of public health. The study carried out on over 300, 000 Americans indicates that there is no direct relationship between total fat consumed and heart diseases risk.
Restricting dietary fat does not grant any health benefits because it led many people to shift to carbohydrates that are not better to the health condition. When many American received the warning that saturated fat in butter would kill them, they turned to consumption of fat in margarine. However, that has not contributed to any health benefits since research indicates trans fatty acids are unhealthful (Taubes, 2539).
Research suggest that high carbohydrate diets have the tendency of raising triglyceride levels, creating small, dense LDL particles, and reducing HDL a combination that leads to a health condition called "insulin resistance" which endocrinologists from Stanford terms as syndrome X. According research, 10 percent of male and 15 percent of post menopause women have the condition, and it could worsen if fat consumption continues being substituted with carbohydrates (Taubes, 2545). Worse the condition increases risks of getting diseases hence implying that reducing dietary fat offers no solution towards improving the health condition of human beings.
Restricting dietary fat does not grant health benefits but instead could lead to more hea...