No sugar, no carbs, just meat, butter, and cream. --Dr. Richard Mackarness
1958: British doctor Richard Mackarness publishes "Eat Fat and Grow Slim."
— Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole) November 26, 2025
The title alone was heretical. Everyone "knew" fat made you fat.
Mackarness argued: "The fattening substance is carbohydrate. Animal fat doesn't make you fat."
He cited thousands of his own patients who… pic.twitter.com/srGTOryAMH
1958: British doctor Richard Mackarness publishes "Eat Fat and Grow Slim." The title alone was heretical. Everyone "knew" fat made you fat. Mackarness argued: "The fattening substance is carbohydrate. Animal fat doesn't make you fat." He cited thousands of his own patients who lost weight eating high-fat, low-carb diets. The book sold over a million copies. People tried it. It worked. For about 5 years, Mackarness was vindicated. His approach was mainstream in Britain. Then the American dietary guidelines came. The Seven Countries Study. The fat hypothesis. By the 1970s, "Eat Fat and Grow Slim" was considered dangerous pseudoscience. Mackarness was called a quack. His clinical results dismissed as anecdotal. He'd successfully treated thousands of obese patients. Documented their weight loss. Published the outcomes.
None of it mattered. The narrative had shifted. Fat was now the enemy. Carbs were fine. Mackarness spent the rest of his career fighting the new orthodoxy. Lost that fight. He died in 1996. His book is out of print. His work forgotten. He was right in 1958. We're still pretending he wasn't.
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