Studies Show Cultural Differences In Dietary Advice Are Needed

The commonly held view that all fats are bad for the individual and should be removed from the diet of as many people as possible has been reported and followed across the world since the 1970s. However, new studies are beginning to look at the dietary needs of communities across the world and seeking new ways of exploring the dietary needs of people whose diets may be extremely different and diverse; respected medical journals, such as “The Lancet” are now looking at carbohydrates as an area of the everyday diet that could be damaging to the health of individuals as fats have always been seen as for around four decades.

The majority of the research completed into the damaging nature of fats on the people of the world was completed in the 1970s in North America and Europe where the common diet of the majority was seen as fatty. The food and diet industries were quick to latch on to the initial research linking fatty foods to many different medical conditions, such as heart disease and stroke; a range of new food products have been released from the 1970s onward focusing on the development of fat-free and low-fat products sold initially in parts of North America and Europe.

The damaging effects of a high-fat diet are well-known across the world, but in the new research, the major issues being faced by people looking to undertake a low-fat diet is an increased mortality rate at a lower age for those cutting the majority of fats out of the diet. One issue identified by many researchers and nutritional experts has been the development of concern about the high-carbohydrate diet many people now eat which has been linked to a higher mortality rate among humans and identified as a far higher problem for the future than was previously thought.

The comparison between switching to a low-fat diet from a higher fat lifestyle, and making a switch to a low-carb diet identifies a major difference in the longevity achieved by those eating diets low in fats and carbohydrates compared to those eating higher levels of these products. A study from McMaster University shows over the course of the seven years of the research those who ate a low-fat diet were 23 percent less likely to die than those who admitted to consuming a diet higher in fatty foods. Switching to a low carbohydrate diet appeared to have an even greater impact on the length of life of an individual which saw a more than 30 percent higher chance of surviving the study than seen by those consuming a high-carbohydrate diet.

Carbohydrates are commonly found in foods such as bread and rice consumed on a regular basis in many parts of the world outside North America and Europe; in southern Asia and parts of Africa the high level of carbohydrates in the diet has been shown to have reached around 67 percent, which is higher than the global average diet determined to have reached 61 percent carbohydrates, 23 percent fat, and 15 percent protein. In some areas of the world, the average level of carbohydrates has reached 67 percent and places the individual at risk of an earlier rate of mortality than seen in those consuming a lower carbohydrate diet.

The misunderstanding about the problem of fatty foods sees many individuals looking to live a healthier lifestyle replacing fats with higher levels of carbohydrates. A number of problems are seen with this change in the diet as carbohydrates consumed at higher levels result in greater stored glucose leading to medical conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.