I
SCIENTIFIC REDUCTIONISM 271many people still regarded the report as cataloging the specific effects of
individual nutrients.
The nutrient that our committee focused on the most was fat. The
first gUideline in the report explicitly stated that high fat consumption
is linked to cancer, and recommended reducing our fat intake from 40%
to 30% of calories, although this goal of 30% was an arbitrary cutoff
point. The accompanying text said, "[Tlhe data could be used to justify
an even greater reduction. However, in the judgment of the committee,
the suggested reduction is a moderate and practical target, and is likely
to be beneficial." One of the committee members, the director of the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Nutrition Laboratory;
told us that if we went below 30%, consumers would be required to re-
duce animal food intake and that would be the death of the report.
At the time of this report, all of the human-based studies showing
fat to be related to cancer (mostly breast and large bowel) were actu-
ally showing that the populations with more cancer consumed not
just more fat, but also more animal-based foods and less plant-based
foods (see chapter four). This meant that these cancers could just as
easily be caused by animal protein, dietary cholesterol, something else
exclUSively found in animal-based foods, or a lack of plant-based foods
(discussed in chapters four and eight). But rather than wagging the fin-
ger at animal-based foods in these studies, dietary fat was given as the
main culprit. I argued against putting the emphaSiS on specific nutrients
in the committee meetings, but only with modest success. (It was this
point of view that landed me the expert witness opportunity at the FTC
hearings.)
This mistake of characterizing whole foods by the health effects of spe-
cific nutrients is what I call reductionism. For example, the health effect
of a hamburger cannot be simply attributed to the effect of a few grams
of saturated fat in the meat. Saturated fat is merely one ingredient. Ham-
burgers also include other types of fat, in addition to cholesterol, protein
and very small amounts of vitamins and minerals. Even if you change the
level of saturated fat in the meat, all of the other nutrients are still present
and may still have harmful effects on health. It is a case of the whole (the
hamburger) being greater than the sum of its parts (the saturated fat, the
cholesterol, etc.).
One scientist especially took note^4 of our focused critique of dietary
fat, and decided to test the hypothesis that fat causes breast cancer in
a large group of American women. He was Dr. Walter Willett of the