Yes, Science says Eat Less Refined Carbs
Eating too many refined carbohydrates leads to weight gain and heart disease
--
The Origins of an Epidemic — the 1977 Dietary Guidelines and Food Pyramid
Prior to the 1970s, you ate what your mother cooked. The government, dieticians and doctors didn’t interfere with Mom. The 1970’s ushered in a huge change when the American government, for the first time in history told people what they should to eat to be healthy with its 1977 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The verdict was to Eat Less Fat and Eat More Carbs.
Because these dietary guidelines had little firm scientific evidence, they get updated every 5 years, which usually ends up simply reflecting the national mood of the time. In 1977, white bread is good (low in fat) and in 2020 (the latest version of the Dietary Guidelines), it is bad (high glycemic index, highly refined, highly processed). In 1977, fatty foods like nuts, fatty fish and avocados are very bad (causes heart disease, don’t you know?). In 2020, nuts, fatty fish and avocados are very good (prevents heart disease, don’t you know?)
The 1977 goal was to eat 55–60% of your daily calories in the form of starch and other carbs. There was no robust scientific basis for these pronouncements, merely a bunch of opinions from people calling themselves experts. This led to the low-fat era of the 1980s and the food pyramid in the early 1990s with all its counterfactual glory.
The Rise of Nutritionism
There were several important problems, though the full extent was not evident for many decades. First, the dietary guidelines led to the rise of nutritionism — the belief that all foods could be interpreted as a combination of their macronutrients (carbs, fats, proteins) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). People started thinking about foods as just their component parts…
