Richard Smith writes of the demonization of certain foods based on weak science and how it may have been a form of mass murder. He focuses especially on the coordinated denunciation of fat.

Reading these books and consulting some of the original studies has been a sobering experience. The successful attempt to reduce fat in the diet of Americans and others around the world has been a global, uncontrolled experiment, which like all experiments may well have led to bad outcomes. What’s more, it has initiated a further set of uncontrolled global experiments that are continuing. Teicholz has done a remarkable job in analysing how weak science, strong personalities, vested interests, and political expediency have initiated this series of experiments.3She quotes Nancy Harmon Jenkins, author of the Mediterranean Diet Cookbook and one of the founders of Oldways, as saying, “The food world is particularly prey to consumption, because so much money is made on food and so much depends on talk and especially the opinions of experts.”31 It’s surely time for better science and for humility among experts.

Medium-length piece, well worth a quick read.

It's a tough habit to shake, isn't it, this American hatred of fat? Most people around me still cut the fat off on any piece of meat they eat, despite the fact it may be a good, filling source of calories. Maybe you don't like the texture, but much of that negative association may be as the result of thinking it will just go straight into your artery as a gelatinous plug.