Why science can’t seem to tell us how to eat right

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(Theresa Tamkins/ WebMD) — Eggs once fell from grace, going from the sunny breakfast staple of choice to a hard pass if you wanted to avoid heart attacks. Then, like all disgraced celebrities, they seemed to make a comeback — in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Health experts said we could stop worrying about the cholesterol or eating too many eggs. (Brunch never looked so fantastic.) Then last month, a study seemed to say — hold up! — cholesterol in your diet and eating eggs was linked to a higher heart risk.

Instead of screams of frustration, though, the news was met with a collective sigh of boredom. Because to be honest, there’s a long list of foods, diets, and ingredients — coconut oil, butter, avocados, low-fat foods, salt, nuts, saturated fat, sugar — that seem to have gone through the same good guy-bad guy cycle.

It’s understandable if you yawned, looked at your fitness-tracker watch of choice, and asked, “Remind me, where are we in the cycle on this one?” just before digging into your plate of scrambled eggs. So who is to blame for the average person’s jaded palate when it comes to foods that supposedly are or are not “healthy”? (…)

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