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Comment by qq66 | Hacker News Reader

Part of this is for cost, and part is for consumer taste. Starting in the early 80s through 90s, consumers started seeking out products based on the amount of fat per serving, leading to the rise of "fro yo" and low-fat high-sugar formulations which had to move away from creamy, low-overrun ice creams. Ice cream is defined by high butterfat content and low air injection (overrun), but as people have started to recognize that sugar is as bad for you as fat, perhaps the market will tilt again.

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Can we stop already with this fat is bad for you? There is so much nutrition misinformation that no wonder there is an obesity epidemic... Fat is not bad for you, in fact it's critical to living a healthy life. Sugar is much easier to abuse because it's absorbed too quickly (which is why fruit juice is bad, no fiber slowing down the absorption) and provided in such vast quantities.

We need to real governance here, bring back some real nutritional science in to the consumers attention and make organisations legally liable for spreading dangerous misinformation. It could save more lives than stopping smoking/alcohol/drugs, gun violence, wars and car accidents combined.

Saturated fat is bad for you - and dairy has saturated fat.

Canola = OK Butter = Bad

There is no evidence Saturated fat is bad.

Go get the current issue of Tine Magazine[1]. This thinking was never backed up with good science 40 years ago and has been totally debunked in literature in the last decade. Saturated fat is very much a part of a healthy diet.

1. No, I don't consider that the "literature", but it's a good jumping off point to start learning what is true in nutrition versus what is dogma.

Dietary Fat is not bad for you, neither is it the same thing as body fat which is an indicator for excessive energy intake (most often from sugary drinks) and being generally misinformed (99% Fat Free? Awesome! Nevermind that added sugar to cover the lack to flavour we took out). What is bad for you is too much, EXCESS. Except this goes for everything. Such as too much sugar, protein, hormones, almost any drug & water can be a detriment, even lethal to you. I'll only give you that trans-fat is terrible.

The market hasn't and never will teach you that moderation is healthy because it's against their business model of selling excess. See meal portion sizes and how they have increased over the last few decades. I hope you're not taking fish oil supplements as well. Anything with this much marketing behind it should be cautioned with much skepticism.

Edit: I stand behind my criticism of anti-fat culture.

It is more likely that you are down voted as you went on a rant about fat to a parent who was talking about consumer tastes I the 80s and 90s. It would feel that both these replies are likely noted as off topic to the general conversation going on here.

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