Huh. Eating less fat doesn't make you healthier? Obesity might result from an infection?

In recent health news, it turns out that a low-fat diet doesn't affect your chances of getting cancer or heart disease:

The $415 million federal study involved nearly 49,000 women ages 50 to 79 who were followed for eight years. In the end, those assigned to a low-fat diet had the same rates of breast cancer, colon cancer, heart attacks and strokes as those who ate whatever they pleased, researchers are reporting today.

"These studies are revolutionary," said Dr. Jules Hirsch, physician in chief emeritus at Rockefeller University in New York City, who has spent a lifetime studying the effects of diets on weight and health. "They should put a stop to this era of thinking that we have all the information we need to change the whole national diet and make everybody healthy."

This certainly does fly in the face of current conventional wisdom on the subject.

Even more interesting was this little tidbit:

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison have found that mice and chickens infected with a common human virus put on much more fat than uninfected animals. They have also discovered that the same virus is more prevalent among overweight people, a strong indication that it may also cause obesity in humans.

Ulcers, and now, possibly, schizophrenia and obesity? It may yet be that nearly all of our bodily ills are due to genetics and bugs.

Technorati Tags: Fat, Health, Obesity