One of the cornerstones of faith in the low-fat diet for a long time has been the low prevalence of heart disease among Japanese people.  Way back when Ancel Keys did his famous Seven Countries study, and picked seven countries out of a bunch more that supported his thesis, one that stuck out was Japan.  Traditional Japanese at the time ate a high-carb, fairly low-fat diet based on a ton of rice and some fish, and they didn’t have much heart disease, and they got more of it when they moved to America.  Keys jumped on this as proof that fat causes heart disease, and we’ve been repeating it ever since.  You’ve probably heard it many times, maybe even repeated it yourself: if you want to be healthy and thin, eat broiled fish and rice like the Japanese.  (The reasoning behind the Mediterranean diet is much the same.) Read more »