This is how science, in it’s purest and most effective form works. A researcher comes up with an idea of what might be causing a problem. For instance, let us say that the scientist thinks that saturated fats in our diets might be CAUSING heart disease. This scientist puts forth his existing research that illustrates where he gets the idea that one thing may be causing another thing. He spells out in great detail where his facts come from. He supports his contention with all of the evidence he can, he presents this information to a waiting world, and then–a good scientist–makes every attempt to help the world destroy his hypothesis. If evidence arises, collected just as he collected his, that lies contrary to his conclusions, then this hypothetical pure scientist must account for new data, find a way to make these results fit into his hypothesis, or he must GIVE up his conclusions and admit to himself that his cause is not the only cause.

In the case of dietary fats causing heart disease, this was never done. The scientist that established the theory was it’s chief sales person. He refused to question his own conclusions or to even share the doubts harbored by his own researchers. In this case, the man, Ancel Keys, was not a scientist, but a High Priest. He acted as though his mission was not to find the truth, but to defend The Truth. His conclusions were never questioned by him. All of the studies that showed contrary findings had to prove their truth to him. This is the polar opposite of the scientific method, and in fact is the very definition of pseudo-science.

It is only now that finally the health situation in America is so dire that nutrition high priests are unable to stomp out the incipient fires of doubt about the connection between dietary fats and heart disease. The science was never pure, the case never closed, but the fix was in from early on. Billions have been made, and now billions are to be lost trying to recover from the damage that bad science has wrought.

The real cause of heart disease was and is carbohydrate. Carbohydrate includes sugar but is not limited to sugar. It is an entire class of foods that, when we began to restrict our fat intake, was used to replace fats in our diet. As the original cause, increasing it’s consumption never reduced the incidence of heart disease. Even worse, increasing our carb loading had the effect of also making us fat, making us sick with high blood pressure and liver disease. By now the idea that low fat is the answer to the ballooning weight of our grandchildren is causing very many innocent parents to further poison them with low-fat foods. Low fat foods are high carb foods. Carbs are the problem, they always were the problem. Carbs in your diet mean triglycerides in your blood. Carbs kill.

Maybe the future will be a place where pseudo science cannot cloud the results of real science. In that future tobacco companies won’t be able to point to ‘scientific’ reports that show that cigarettes cure athsma and are a health care product. In that future, climate ‘scientists’ won’t be able to point to snow on our lawns and report that the science is still out on global climate change. In that future, oil and gas ‘scientists’ won’t be able to claim that the greenhouse gases from wild animals are greater than from their products. Maybe the future will be a place where there will be penalties from such behavior that don’t fall uniformly on the rest of us, like they do now.