Imagine going to a doctor in Sweden. You are overweight or perhaps borderline diabetic and you are worried and want to know what to do.
After a health checkup your doctor gives you his diagnosis: Eat more fat, cut right back on the fruit and veg. Your Swedish doctor warns you that if you carry on with your previous low fat diet you are heading for disaster.
This is the alternate reality that exists now in Sweden following a meta study of 16000 studies by the Swedish Council On Health.
Not far across the water in the UK, fat and thin alike are still being advised to fill up, in the absence of fatty foods, on (starch based) veg and (sugar based) fruit.
Are these two worlds set to collide?
To a certain extent you can already see this collision happening on diabetic forums in the UK. The forums are packed with posts extolling the virtues of a low carbohydrate diet whereas the dietaty advice section of those same websites suggest a low fat approach. It seems that people know something that the mainstream does not. A grass roots revolution perhaps?
There are a few GPs in the UK who are putting their heads above the parapet and questioning the status quo by doing their own research. Here is an example from a GP practice in Southport.
Jay Rayner smells victory in his war on low fat in this article. But TV chefs and Swedes are easily dismissed in this 'balanced diet' world we live in. Balanced diet meaning of course that we should eat a diet low in fat with carbohydrates making up the difference.
In the meantime people are getting fatter and fatter...and fatter.