However, in the end I think the best point was made by Dr. Gil Wilshire, whom we almost never hear from, that these studies really don’t study the diets themselves, but only how well people do or do not hold to diets based on social forces. Almost all long-term studies so far have totally muddied these two things. Therefore, based on shoddy studies such as these, serious researchers still do not have firm, clear evidence to support low-carb over low-fat.

The popular movement in 2003 died out because it was never a real movement in the first place, that is, it was not based on popular support backed by scientific evidence, but rather was a pure marketing frenzy for the next hot thing. The products were poor quality and overpriced and completely unsupported by the social, media or medical establishments. It was just another pet-rock or Elmo doll.

The bad news is that, without a large amount of accumulated research behind it, low-carb is still unverifiable. The good news is that, without any strong evidence against it, low carb is also still irrefutable. So the road ahead may be long and winding, but it is still clear and wide open. We are not just turning a few scientific heads, we are reversing the misguided momentum of an entire social culture.

As we can see from all this, the scienctific establishment is not immune to social pressures to “find” or hide certain outcomes, and society will clearly respond very sheepishly to what a scientific or government establishment tells them to believe. Remember the study of how people would inflict torture on others if an authority told them to do it? This is what we are seeing here on a vast social scale.