Opinion: Is tribalism undermining objectivity about low-carb, high-fat diets?

Anyone who is active on social media has come to expect a certain degree of tribalism around the issues of the day: guns, climate change, abortion, politics, and the like. We’ve been surprised to see it creep into the online conversation about nutrition science, especially the discussion about low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets. Even more surprising to us is that such advocacy sometimes comes from health professionals, scientists, and journalists, from whom we would normally expect a certain degree of objectivity.

These diets aren’t new. William Banting how a low-carbohydrate diet helped him lose weight, and since the 1970s the low-carb Atkins and South Beach diet books have sold millions of copies. Emerging data show that low-carb, high-fat diets can lead to reduced weight and. That doesn’t necessarily mean low-carb, high-fat diets increase the risk of heart attack in everyone — or even in those with high cholesterol — because of the many potential benefits associated with these diets.