[rroblak]

This. People are getting the message that "sugar is bad" but the public health messaging of "fat is bad" still lingers in many people's heads. It's sad, because as you mentioned some days are indeed essential nutrients. Especially for kids and pregnant women.

[hilbert42]

"People are getting the message that "sugar is bad" but the public health messaging of "fat is bad" still lingers in many people's heads."

If this is true then what the hell is going on? We knew this about sugar with certainly at absolute minimum a half century ago when I was a kid (I know as I remember the message).

The message—even as told at school—was that 'excessive and repeated amounts of sugar (especially the refined type as in drinks and sweets) causes diabetes'. QED!

So what the fuck has happened, how was this once well-established message erased from the collective consciousness of more recent generations?

The message back then was so all pervasive that everybody knew it.

So many important facts have been lost to recent generations that I'm beginning to think education is going backwards fast. What happened to health lectures in primary school where we were told these facts?

[mlyle]

We only really recently have evidence for sugar, on its own, causing diabetes.

We had a lot of evidence for sugar causing weight gain. And higher weight is strongly correlated with type II diabetes. But from a public health standpoint, we were worried about fats. We realized that many fats caused health problems even without weight gain and also viewed fats as having a more primary role in weight gain.

It's only recently (in the last couple of decades) that we've gotten evidence that sugar on its own can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes--even if you are of normal weight.

[TheOtherHobbes]

The sugar industry spent a lot of money on PR to shift the blame to fat.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074...

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/07/the-sugar-co...

Also, it's "obvious" (but completely wrong) that if you don't want to be fat, you shouldn't eat fat.

So "low-fat" products were (still are...) sold as a "diet" option. In fact processed carbs, and sugar in particular, are a far more direct cause of weight gain.

Fats do contribute to weight gain, but they're much more complicated. Sat vs unsat, trans vs ordinary, and so on all have very different health effects.

Put directly, the sugar industry lied and is now responsible for tens of millions of deaths.

[BigGreenJorts]

The replies are talking about sugar industry advertizing and actual scientific discoveries that point to causation which I'm sure are real. But I even I remember just 10 years ago the common rhetoric being (even if it wasn't validated) "eat too much sugar and you'll get diabetes". Where I think the impression I had was, "Well people with diabetes have to be extremely careful about their sugar intake -> sugar causes diabetes."

I will conceed that's not how science or the cause and effect works, but that's what I and everyone around me thought.

[solumunus]

People know it’s bad but it’s addictive.

[mlyle]

I mean, the "fat is bad" thing isn't completely wrong: it is definitely possible to overdo it. It's extremely calorically dense, and most fats are bad for us in other ways.

But society didn't replace some of the fat with increased intake of vegetables and lean meats.

Food manufacturers compensated for less fat with more sugars and salt, which we've been finding are even worse.