Nutrition Science Flip Flops—Untangling the Confusion Behind the Science

For years, experts said low-fat eating was the way to go. Then a big study came along and blew that theory out of the water. Results from the large, federally-funded Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) indicated that a low-fat diet did not significantly cut the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, colorectal cancer or stroke. Soon newspaper headlines read: study finds no major benefit of a low-fat diet. And people became confused. Thus began the era of nutrition science flip flops, a time that saw nutrition experts reversing their dietary recommendations as science led them in new directions.