BJSM is one of very few channels that comments on food but doesn’t receive any funds from any food-related stakeholder. The BMJ doesn’t receive funds from food companies (as far as I know) and the new BMJ Open journal on nutrition doesn’t either. What about the ‘British Nutrition Foundation’ – sounds pretty helpful right? Well, it may be, but if you know where to click 5 times you can find that about 1/3 of its funding from corporate sponsors. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has food sponsors too. That’s perfectly legal.

What about Government Food Guidelines – surely they are based on health evidence? Well, they may be, but governments run the food guidelines past their Departments of Agriculture before finalizing them. And that is OK too – I can understand why that would happen – of course that Department has to have input. Government requires balancing competing interests.

I don’t recommend people following national food guidelines (personal opinion – k2). I wouldn’t follow most nations’ food guidelines if I were given the food for free and paid $100 per day. Not for $500 per day – sorry. I’m fortunate as I’m on stable financial footing (touch wood). And what I eat may be ‘wrong’. This podcast is shared with the BJSM community in a spirit of humility and to provide data for folks to make up their own minds.

Nina Teicholz is a journalist (let’s get than in early to save the critics from bringing it up – pre-empting the ad hominem attack) and she has a fascinating book that argues fats have been unfairly demonized. Since that book was published the news that Harvard scientists were paid for a report suggesting that fats, not sugar, caused obesity. http://ow.ly/j1Bc30kCvqx. Nina Teicholz tweets from @bigfatsurprise.

Thanks to Dr Mark Hyman (@MarkHymanMD) for allowing us to edit his conversation with Nina Teicholz.

Link to a recent Nina Teicholz comment in The BMJ: https://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k822/rr-13

Here’s a link to the book that documents the case for healthy fats: https://thebigfatsurprise.com/

The original (full version) of Dr Mark Hyman’s podcast with Nina Teicholz on YouTube https://youtu.be/Zc_e5ME_5Cg