Eat fat to lose weight, maybe

Dairy cow
A dairy cow: Why would people who drink whole milk be less prone to obesity than those who drink skim?
MPR Photo/Mark Steil

If you want to lose weight, should you cut fat out of your diet, or keep it in? Are carbs your friend or your enemy?

NPR recently looked into the fat-free food fad of the 1990s and found that the fat-free cheese we were eating actually contributed to the nation's growing obesity crisis.

"In one paper, published by Swedish researchers in the Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care, middle-aged men who consumed high-fat milk, butter and cream were significantly less likely to become obese over a period of 12 years compared with men who never or rarely ate high-fat dairy," NPR reported. "Yep, that's right. The butter and whole-milk eaters did better at keeping the pounds off."

So what is a waistline-conscious person to do? We talk with two nutrition experts to get the skinny on what really makes us fat.

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