Cutting back on butter, cream, cheese and other fatty foods is fuelling the obesity epidemic with disastrous consequences for health, experts have warned.
In a damning report that accuses major public health bodies in the UK of colluding with the food industry, the National Obesity Forum and the Public Health Collaboration said most of what we are told about healthy eating is wrong.
Calling for a "major overhaul" of dietary guidelines, it claimed that far from demonising fat, we should be eating more of it.
It also described sunflower oil as "barely a food", advised people to stop counting calories and warned that exercising does not help with weight loss.
The controversial claims have been criticised by other experts who accused the report's authors of cherry picking evidence to suit their own arguments.