Robin writes:
> While browsing Kurzweil's web site, I came
> across this book of his:
>
> "The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life
> How to Eliminate Virtually All Risk of Heart
> Disease and Cancer
> by Ray Kurzweil, Crown Publishers, 1993
> http://www.kurzweiltech.com/10.htm
This looks to have been well within "mainstream alternative" (if that
means anything) health perspectives of the early 1990s. Pick up any issue
of Prevention magazine or other alternative health sources of that era
and you will find the same advice: lower your fat intake, preferably below
10% of dietary calories, and you will gain tremendous health benefits.
The strict mainstream health establishment recommended, and still does,
getting below 30%. They say it is questionable how much extra benefit
there is from going lower.
This led to the explosion in super-low-fat snack foods in the 1990s,
loaded with sugar, salt, and other substances of questionable value.
As a result, although people's fat intakes fell, the hoped for health
benefits didn't materialize. Plus, people got fatter than ever.
The problem turns out to be focusing strictly on fat percentage, rather
than looking for an overall healthful diet. It's probably pretty healthy
to eat nothing but whole grains and fresh vegetables and fruits, as
Kurzweil describes. It's not so good to load up on Snackwells and low
fat Oreos. These are very different low fat diets, but the second one
is a lot easier to stick to for most people today.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:09:04 MDT