Good Calories, Bad Calories

150 years of anecdotal evidence and observation suggest that carbohydrates are uniquely fattening, it would be unjustifiable scientifical y to reject that hypothesis without compel ing evidence to the contrary. Such evidence does not exist. My purpose here is to examine the data that do exist and to demonstrate how we have reached the conclusions we have and whether or not they are justified.

There is a more important issue here as wel , and it extends

According to the USDA, we have been eating less red meat, fewer eggs, and more poultry and fish; our average fat intake has dropped from 45 percent of total calories to less than 35 percent, and National Institutes of Health surveys have documented a coincident fal in our cholesterol levels. Between 1976

and 1996, there was a 40-percent decline in hypertension in America, and a 28-percent decline in the number of individuals with chronical y high cholesterol levels. But the evidence does not suggest that these decreases have improved our health.

Heart-disease death rates