Prior to 1945, European physicians knew that obesity was a direct result of eating too many carbohydrates and sugars. They also knew that removing or severely restricting those foods from the diet was the only way to achieve long-term fat loss. Other sources of calories had little to do with fat gain.

But by the 1970s, the American medical establishment convinced the world that the problem was total calories and too little exercise.

Therefore, the answer to obesity was semi-starvation diets and more exercise. The problem with this program was that no one was able to achieve long-term weight loss.

Likewise, many studies found that obese people ate no more in terms of total calories than people with normal fat composition.

When I first examined the problem of obesity, I was puzzled as to why “experts” used such an unscientific method to gauge energy intake. That is, they used total calories as the most important measure of a healthy diet. People were told to “count calories” from proteins, carbohydrates, and fats and then add them together.

I tried to convince people that calories from protein and fat did not contribute to obesity, and that the only important calories to count were those from carbohydrates and sugars. But no one would listen.