Better science behind new dietary guidelines

New York

FOR decades, many dietary recommendations have revolved around consuming a low percentage of daily calories from fat. It has been widely thought that doing so would reduce one's chance of having coronary heart disease. Most of the evidence for that recommendation has come from epidemiologic studies, which can be flawed.

Use of these types of studies happens far more often than many would like, leading to dietary guidelines that may not be based on the best available evidence. But last week, the government started to address that problem, proposing new guidelines that in some cases are more in line with evidence from randomised controlled trials, a more rigorous form of scientific research.