Walter Willett Quotations

One of the problems with a low-fat diet is that it actually drives down the good cholesterol -- the HDL -- in our blood (and that) ... will probably increase the risk of heart disease,

Further adding, Increased intakes of polyunsaturated fat also probably explain most of the major declines in coronary mortality in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia over several decades.

Treatment doesn't bring back the risk to that of someone without hypertension, ... High blood pressure raises the risk threefold and treatment reduces it by 25 percent.

We wanted to get parents and voters informed about what was happening to the schools and in the schools, especially in terms of the budget. We want to make sure schools are fairly represented.

Even if you do see a small benefit for, say, breast cancer, you couldn't be sure it was due to fat and not due to the fact that the women also increased their fruit and vegetable intake and there was also a small weight loss. I think it's clear this study was a mistake.

Five to 6 grams of trans fat is a huge amount just from one serving. Food services usually use the same oils for cooking fish, chicken and other foods as they do fries, so if they've got the high level in fries, they've got it in lots of foods.

The results are not a surprise, ... We have come to understand many of the pieces - and they add up to major health benefits.

It would be a huge misinterpretation to believe that it doesn't matter what we eat to prevent heart disease and cancer.

People should be able to assume that hospitals are serving them the healthiest food possible. In this case, their trust has clearly been betrayed.

No research has ever shown that people who eat more eggs have more heart attacks than people who eat fewer.

This does very strongly refute the dominant view in the 1990s, that reducing the amount of fat in the diet would spontaneously lead to weight loss. What's happened to the American diet during this low-fat period is, people were given the idea that if they reduced calories from fat, weight would go down. Clearly, that has not happened.

It was a mistake, and this study really confirms that it was the wrong direction to go for nutritional advice. It did do harm. It was a lost opportunity. People were given the idea that it was only fat calories that counted. This should be the nail in the coffin for low-fat diets.

It was just about 15 years ago when a scientist at the National Institute on Aging concluded that it was good to be a little overweight rather than normal weight, ... And it was pure rubbish.

In general, it's been found -- both in this study and other studies -- that it's really (women who are) current or recent users of hormones who have an increased risk of breast cancer.

In the area of diet, we are only asking for fairly modest shifts,

A lost opportunity, ... only the very most motivated people will go to the Web and dig into this information.

Even the relatively small amount of trans fats are likely to be causing around 7,000 premature deaths from heart disease per year.

Trans fats really are a metabolic poison.

The evidence that folic acid reduces the risk of heart disease is pretty strong. [...] And fruits and vegetables are a major source of folic acid.

With breast cancer, nothing is straightforward. It makes sense for most people to make their dietary decisions based on what it does for heart disease. That's where the data are most strong.

There's a lot of evidence that fruits and vegetables are beneficial for reducing the risk of stroke.

We see clear evidence repeated in many studies that higher intake of trans fats is associated with higher risk of heart disease, and with many other conditions, such as diabetes and infertility.

No single food will make or break good health. But the kinds of food you choose day in and day out have a major impact.

A diet rich in fruits and vegetables plays a role in reducing the risk of all the major causes of illness and death

If you step back and look at the data, the optimum amount of red meat you eat should be zero.