A Sugar Conspiracy

It has been suggested that to prevent a fall in sales the sugar industry manipulated the scientific evidence by directing attention towards the role of fat in heart disease, and away from sugar; the so-called sugar conspiracy. There is good evidence that two eminent nutritionists were paid by the sugar industry to write reviews that emphasized the role of fat, without acknowledging the role of the sugar industry. It is argued  that these actions are unlikely to have influenced the decision to recommend the removal of fat from the diet, as at the time it was the predominant theory concerning the cause of heart disease. Although today all scientists are expected to report any interaction with the food industry, at the time it was not something that happened. Any implication that there was stronger evidence that sugar rather than fat caused heart disease is simply not true. In fact, at the time the evidence for either sugar or fat playing a role in heart disease was weak, and at the best circumstantial.