If you're actually interested in what happened (you may just be venting, can't really tell) there's an excellent talk called "Big Fat Fiasco" on youtube that goes into the history of the lipid hypothesis (fat makes you fat) and how it got hold: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exi7O1li_wA (it's about an hour long).
One of the most amazing parts for me was the video of the senate commission tasked with coming up with dietary guidelines (the commission that created the food pyramid) outright rejecting the majority consensus that it's foolish to publish guidelines at a time that so little is truly known and that, if anything, it's carbs, not fat that are the problem. (Yes, the scientific community back then was leaning towards carbs being the problem.) One of the senators has an amazing quote along the lines of: I don't have the luxury of waiting to make an informed decision like a scientist.
Anyway, long story short it was politicians blessing the lipid hypothesis and then later removing all funding from anyone with a contrary opinion. The nutrition "scientists" are almost all funded by the government and therefore started to self-censor and never publish anything contradicting the anointed hypothesis. If they did they were basically booted out and never funded again.
Finally it seems the breaking point has been reached and we might get actual scientific research done in nutrition science instead of the quack research that's been the norm for the past 40 years.
You are 100% right on. It is infinitely easier to test and isolate the variables that go into metabolism than it is to test and isolate the variables that go into global climate. Its infinitely easier because the later simply isn't possible.
"I take the hard view that science involves the creation of testable hypotheses" - Crichton
One of the most amazing parts for me was the video of the senate commission tasked with coming up with dietary guidelines (the commission that created the food pyramid) outright rejecting the majority consensus that it's foolish to publish guidelines at a time that so little is truly known and that, if anything, it's carbs, not fat that are the problem. (Yes, the scientific community back then was leaning towards carbs being the problem.) One of the senators has an amazing quote along the lines of: I don't have the luxury of waiting to make an informed decision like a scientist.
Anyway, long story short it was politicians blessing the lipid hypothesis and then later removing all funding from anyone with a contrary opinion. The nutrition "scientists" are almost all funded by the government and therefore started to self-censor and never publish anything contradicting the anointed hypothesis. If they did they were basically booted out and never funded again.
Finally it seems the breaking point has been reached and we might get actual scientific research done in nutrition science instead of the quack research that's been the norm for the past 40 years.