Grasgruber Pavel
Faculty of Sports Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
Ann Med. 2025 Dec;57(1):2514073. doi: 10.1080/07853890.2025.2514073. Epub 2025 Jun 14.
Meta-analyses of observational and clinical studies conducted in recent years have raised serious doubts about the validity of the low-fat dietary recommendations introduced in the late 1970s/early 1980s, due to the absence of any convincing link between saturated fat and the risk of cardiovascular diseases. At the same time, long-term food supply statistics from the FAOSTAT database show that these recommendations were at the root of fundamental dietary changes in Western countries, which resulted in a lower consumption of eggs and red meat, a higher consumption of cereals and poultry, a decline in average protein quality and, overall, in a higher glycemic load of the diet. Because current views on human nutrition are based primarily on highly unreliable questionnaire data from observational studies, the purpose of this commentary is to provide an alternative ecological (country-level) perspective and to trace the consequences of these nutritional changes using the FAOSTAT database in combination with available anthropological and health statistics. This comparison shows a close connection between the decline in protein quality and the sudden reversal of the positive height trend in some Western countries, after ∼150 years of continuous growth, which points to suboptimal levels of child nutrition. The sharp increase in the prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes is strongly correlated with the increasing consumption of high-glycemic carbohydrates and sweeteners, and is also interconnected with the decrease in body height, because a high-quality, growth-stimulating diet during adolescence is inversely related to obesity. Given the long-term association between height and phenotypic IQ, the lower quality of nutrients in children's diet may also seriously affect intellectual potential and future civilizational development. In light of these findings, current nutritional strategies should be seriously reconsidered and recommended protein intakes for children must be urgently reevaluated.
近年来进行的观察性和临床研究的荟萃分析，对20世纪70年代末/80年代初提出的低脂肪饮食建议的有效性提出了严重质疑，因为饱和脂肪与心血管疾病风险之间缺乏任何令人信服的联系。与此同时，联合国粮食及农业组织统计数据库（FAOSTAT）的长期食物供应统计数据表明，这些建议是西方国家基本饮食变化的根源，导致鸡蛋和红肉的消费量降低，谷物和家禽的消费量增加，平均蛋白质质量下降，总体而言，饮食的血糖负荷更高。由于目前关于人类营养的观点主要基于观察性研究中高度不可靠的问卷调查数据，本评论的目的是提供另一种生态（国家层面）视角，并结合现有的人类学和健康统计数据，利用FAOSTAT数据库追溯这些营养变化的后果。这种比较表明，在持续增长约150年后，一些西方国家蛋白质质量的下降与身高正增长趋势的突然逆转之间存在密切联系，这表明儿童营养水平不理想。肥胖和2型糖尿病患病率的急剧上升与高血糖碳水化合物和甜味剂消费量的增加密切相关，也与身高下降相互关联，因为青春期高质量的、促进生长的饮食与肥胖呈负相关。鉴于身高与表型智商之间的长期关联，儿童饮食中营养质量较低也可能严重影响智力潜能和未来的文明发展。鉴于这些发现，当前的营养策略应认真重新考虑，儿童的推荐蛋白质摄入量必须紧急重新评估。
