Cut the fat, lose the weight.

For decades, that advice has been the mantra of health experts who've urged cutting back on dietary fat to shed pounds and boost health. Yet despite embracing that advice, the nation’s collective waistline has continued to expand since the 1970s.

In a new book, “Eat Fat, Get Thin,” Dr. Mark Hyman argues that’s not merely a coincidence and challenges the orthodoxy of conventional nutritional advice.

In fact, he says the low-fat food movement has fueled the nation’s obesity crisis, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating seven in 10 Americans are overweight or obese.

The reason: Low-fat foods are often loaded with empty calories, additives, sugar, and unhealthy carbohydrates that boost weight gain and aren’t very nutritious.

Hyman, director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Functional Medicine, says the solution to the obesity epidemic is for Americans to add more healthy fats to their diets, which have been proven to help people shed pounds and boost their overall health.

“Healthy fats are crucial for our brain, our hormones, our skin, our gut flora, and often when people limit healthy fats, they replace those fats with processed carbohydrates,” Hyman tells Newsmax Health.

“This is what our government recommended when the Food Pyramid came out in 1992 and it led to one of the biggest health epidemics of all time.”

Hyman’s advice comes from his own research, personal experience, and his medical practice. As a former vegetarian, he once limited his intake of dietary fat and loaded up on whole grains, wheat bread, beans, pasta, and fruits and vegetables — following a diet in line with the federal government’s dietary guidelines.

But despite following those recommendations, and getting regular exercise, he found himself gaining weight. So he began examining the latest nutritional research and found that many studies have concluded healthy fats — those contained in olive oil, fatty fish, nuts, and certain vegetables like avocados — boost weight loss and overall health.

As a result, he started eating more fat — not less – and found that he lost weight. He then began urging his patients to follow suit and found that many lost weight and improved their cholesterol levels. Some even reversed their Type 2 diabetes.

One of his patients became a very public example of the benefits of a healthy-fat diet: Former President Bill Clinton — a friend of Hyman’s — lost a significant amount of weight (30 pounds since he was in the White House, by his account) after giving up his low-fat vegan diet and following the doctor’s advice to eat more healthy fats.

In his new book, Hyman explores the nutritional research into the benefits of healthy fat, challenges current federal dietary recommendations, and provides clear-eyed advice for eating a nutritious diet.

He recently spoke with Newsmax Health about the confusing dietary advice out there, and the disconnect between conventional nutritional guidelines and the scientific research on diet. An excerpt from the interview follows:

Do you believe the federal dietary guidelines on fat have fueled the nation’s obesity crisis?

“Yes, 100 percent. We were told to replace fats with carbs and sugars. Not only that, we were told to eat six to 11 servings of rice, bread, cereal, and pasta every day! This has made us fatter and sicker than ever.
 
“Our government, the media, and many doctors and nutritionists can’t let this low-fat recommendation go despite the flawed research and the scientific evidence proving that healthy fats are the way to go.”

You argue that, essentially, not all fats are created equal — that is, some are actually good for you. How so?

“Fat is a complicated topic that inspires a lot of debate amongst experts. We can’t say that all fat is good or bad. Sugar is sugar is sugar. There are 257 names for sugar and with a few exceptions, they’re pretty much all the same. But fat is not fat is not fat.

“You have trans fats which are evil; stay away from those! You have omega-3 fats that come from foods like wild fatty fish. These are what I like to call the happy fats. They make your brain happy; they regulate cholesterol, protect your heart, and so much more.”

What types of fat should you include in your diet?

“Some of my favorite fats include organic, unrefined, cold pressed coconut oil, and organic, unrefined, cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, nuts and seeds, wild fatty fish, grass fed meats, and avocados. These are healthy fats.”

Do you worry the new scientific research on healthy fats will give many Americans license to garbage up on fried foods?

“That’s why it’s important to get educated. My new book, 'Eat Fat, Get Thin' takes you through all of the fats: the good, the bad, the questionable. If you have questions about fat, I suggest reading this book first.”

What’s your take on the latest U.S. Dietary Guidelines issued earlier year, which for the first time remove their long-standing restrictions on dietary fat?

“The most powerful recommendation is to avoid or limit added sugars. Fat and cholesterol have also been exonerated with no restrictions on total fat or cholesterol in the diet after 35 years of previous guidelines advising a low-fat and low-cholesterol diet.

“The other key focus is whole, nutrient dense foods and healthy dietary patterns which moves away from the confusion in past guidelines by highlighting whole foods not just ingredients.

“But the recommendations do not go far enough in addressing the need to reduce refined carbohydrates and processed meat. They also side stepped and did not include the environmental impact and sustainability issues caused by factory farming of animal products that were a main focus of 2015 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on whose recommendations these guidelines are based.”