Missed opportunity

Doctors On Call, the RTE 1 programme, has missed a golden opportunity to provide the public with the true facts about heart-healthy diets.

The feeding hints for new moms was useful, and the innovations in health gadgetry were interesting and helpful, but the fearsome warnings about the health hazards of saturated fats and dietary cholesterol were misguided.

The presenters chose to beat the anti-fat, anti-cholesterol drum, thereby diverting public attention away from the real culprits, the “low fat” packaged goods on supermarket shelves, parading as “heart healthy” options. The simple truth that cholesterol is essential for good health and that saturated fats are cardio-protective was clearly absent from the show.