Gary Taubes Restricting Dietary Fat, Health Benefits - 1100 Words

Gary Taubes: Restricting Dietary Fat, Confers Health Benefits (Book Review Sample) Content: NameProfessorTitleDateGary TaubesReasons, why I disagree with Gary Taubes on claims that, restricting dietary fat, confers health benefitsI totally do not agree with Gary Taubes that limiting dietary fat confers any health benefits. The belief merely relies on the fact that consumption of dietary fat increases cholesterol levels that clog arteries and clog arteries and cause coronary artery disease, heart attack, and death. The assumption is however not true because cases of heart disease in America are still very high despite the reduction in fat intake from 40 percent to 30 percent since the early 1970s (Taubes, 2536). Furthermore, a study published in the new English journal of medicine established that the reduction in number of deaths related to heart attack had direct link to proper treatment offered by doctors and not reduction in consumption of dietary fat (Taubes, 2537). The study indicated that the number of medical procedures for heart diseases had increase d from 1.2 million to 5.4 million an indication that reduction in consumption of dietary fat had done little to help in reducing heart diseases.Reduction of dietary fat has also not contributed to reducing obesity that is very dangerous to human health. Obesity rates in the United States of America increased from 14 percent to 22 percent of the population between the 1960s and 1980 despite the reduction in fat intake levels. Obesity has in return increased cases of diabetes that continue to increase chances of heart disease (Taubes, 2538). My disagreement received support from the nurses' health study conducted by Harvard school of public health. The study carried out on over 300, 000 Americans indicates that there is no direct relationship between total fat consumed and heart diseases risk.Restricting dietary fat does not grant any health benefits because it led many people to shift to carbohydrates that are not better to the health condition. When many American received the warnin g that saturated fat in butter would kill them, they turned to consumption of fat in margarine. However, that has not contributed to any health benefits since research indicates trans fatty acids are unhealthful (Taubes, 2539).Research suggest that high carbohydrate diets have the tendency of raising triglyceride levels, creating small, dense LDL particles, and reducing HDL a combination that leads to a health condition called "insulin resistance" which endocrinologists from Stanford terms as syndrome X. According research, 10 percent of male and 15 percent of post menopause women have the condition, and it could worsen if fat consumption continues being substituted with carbohydrates (Taubes, 2545). Worse the condition increases risks of getting diseases hence implying that reducing dietary fat offers no solution towards improving the health condition of human beings.Restricting dietary fat does not grant health benefits but instead could lead to more health problems. According to Ahrens and his panel of ten people, the body requires a lot of fat to function normally. Fat forms 70 percent of the human brain and has the crucial role of insulating neurons. Furthermore, fat is a primary component of the cell membranes and any efforts made to change the proportion of saturation to unsaturated fats in the diet would interfere with fat composition in these membranes (Taubes, 2540). That would automatically change the membrane permeability that controls the transportation of everything in the body ranging from glucose, signaling proteins, and hormones to bacteria viruses and tumor-causing agents into and out of the cell. Furthermore reducing dietary fat could influence cellular aging and interfere with clotting ability of blood cells causing more harm to human health.Alternative solutions to conclude about health diet versus disease control as one of the nation's largest issuesOne of the alternative solutions to the problem of controlling the disease through healthf ul diet is for the NAS food and nutrition board to put in place clear guidelines for healthy diets. That is because there is no clear research that indicates how the reduction of dietary fat has improved human health. Three types of research one from Harvard medical school, another from University of California and another from McGill University in Montreal all seemed to offer no better recommendations on the way forward. That implies that providing clear guidelines by the government authority would be the only best option (Taubes, 2541). Such guidelines would take care of everything dietary fat included.Another solution is for the government to allocate more funding...