There is growing evidence that eating fat will not make you fat, but sugar

• In the World Cup of food wars, sugar and fat are the playoff teams.
• But an emerging science is beginning to suggest that when eaten alone, fat does not contribute to weight gain.
  
• Increasingly alarmed by the sugar in our diet, scientists recommend reducing consumption and bringing back foods such as creamy avocados and butter salmon

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It makes sense that rich foods, such as creamy avocados or salmon dipped in butter, contribute to weight gain. Likewise, stacking sweets such as sweet cereals and high-carb bagels can not be too big for your waistline.

But scientists are examining more and more what's going on in our bodies. or fat on their own.

In many parts of the world, both ingredients are rarely eaten alone. Take donuts as an example. When the fresh dough of sugar is fried in oil, you get a clbadic combination of sugar and fat with a rich flavor and a powerful mouthfeel that is hard to pbad.

But a growing body of evidence is beginning to suggest that when they are consumed in isolation, fats do not contribute to weight gain. On the other hand, dozens of studies indicate that sugar alone is significantly related to packaging on books.

Aaron Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Indiana School of Medicine, expresses it this way in the recent book, "The Bad Food Bible: How and why to eat wisely. "

"There is one thing to know about fat," he wrote, "Fat consumption does not cause weight gain, quite the contrary, it could help us lose a few pounds.

This means that foods like butterscotch, rich salmon and savory nuts should have their place.If you banished them during the craze of the low-fat diets of the 1990s , it's time to bring them back.

The proof is in the pudding

Determining which ingredient – fat or sugar – is responsible for most of the negative health results, it helps to compare people who ate low-fat or low-carb diets.

Studies that suggest that reducing fats not only do not lose weight, they do not see d & # 39; 39, other advantages for As a result, people who eat a lot of fats, but restrain their intake of refined carbohydrates like sugar cereals, in other words, evidence that sugar is related to weight gain is in the pudding – literally.

For a large recent review of studies published in The Lancet newspaper, scientists compared more than 135,000 people in 18 countries on low-fat or low-carb diets. People on a low-fat diet were more likely to die in any cause; they were also at greater risk of dying from heart attacks and heart disease. In contrast, people on low-carb plans had a significantly lower risk of both these results.

The conclusion was so strong, the authors of the paper conclude, that "global dietary guidelines should be reconsidered," they wrote. 19659013] What Happens When We Cut Fat

This conclusion makes even more sense when we look at what happens when people try to cut fat. In general, they end up exchanging rich or creamy ingredients with foods filled with sugar and carbohydrates.

During an eight-year trial involving nearly 50,000 women, scientists put about half a fat-reduced diet. Not only have low-fat people not lost a lot of weight, but they have not seen the risk of bad cancer, colorectal cancer or heart disease decrease – results usually badociated with a healthier diet.

Part of the problem lies in what happens with the rest of our diet when we suddenly try to eat only low-fat foods.

Most ready-to-eat foods in the "low fat" category are full of sugar and carbohydrates. Take any cereal, granola bar and yogurt together and check the nutrition label: they are all high in sugar and carbohydrates despite being low in fat.

Meanwhile, studies suggest that these two ingredients are strongly related to weight gain. A review of 50 diet and weight gain studies published in the journal Food and Nutrition Research found that on average, the most refined grains consumed (such as processed cereals and granola bars) have more of weight than others. While "low fat" products are all sold as weight loss tools, the reality is that these products can contribute a lot more to weight gain than a high fat product with less refined carbohydrates.

The message to remember here is that fat is an essential food ingredient, while sugar – although it is ubiquitous in dozens of foodstuffs – is not. This means that even though it takes more work to curb your sugar intake, the available evidence suggests that it's better to fight than skim off fat.