An Italian study that followed 48000 Italians eating habits for 8 years noticed that among those who ate processed carbohydrates from sources such as white bread, heart disease occurred 2.25 more often. The study also indicated that it wasn’t the carbohydrates, but the type of carbohydrates. This trend was seen among women only. High glycemic foods, foods that are rapidly absorbed in the blood stream, contain processed carbohydrates.

Yesterday I met Dr. Annika Dahlqvist, a person despised by my colleagues. The public cat-fight between her and various dietitians has been a media goldmine, and her low carbohydrate high fat diet has caused an uproar like no other. Wanting to meet the person behind the diet, I packed my Nikon camera with me, pen and paper ready, and got a front row seat at her lecture last night.
When I found out that no other than the much debated Dr. Annika Dahlqvist was going to address the public at the concert house today, I ran out and got a ticket immediately. There has been a media frenzy around this woman since she started promoting a LCHF (low carbohydrate high fat) a few years back. She had herself successfully lost weight and felt like she had found the answer to obesity and various health problems. Not surprisingly the dietitians and various other health care workers where not pleased, and fuelled with skepticism and anger a double sided debate started. She attacked the dietitians and the ‘government’ and the professors, and they likewise clawed back. Today the debate is just as lively as back in 2005, and her name is close to a curse word in a dietitian’s world.
I walked into a room filled with middle aged men and women, probably in their late fifties, and most of them where overweight. I secretly wondered how many diets, how many attempts they had, and how dearly they wished for a cure. The lights went of. The spotlights came on. A middle aged woman wearing a knitted jumper, granny-pants and sandals with socks walked out on the stage. Annika Dahlqvist had entered the stage.
When she was young and growing up in a small city up north, her mother had always fed her a diet rich in animal fat. Whenever she had tried to give them lighter versions, they would always end up cranky and hungry. They where all lean, happy and healthy. As Annika moved from home she started taking the old-type contraceptives, which at the time where high in estrogen, and she developed quite an appetite. Her boyfriend, a chef, cooked delicious sandwiches that they would enjoy at night, and she soon gained weight. She read in a medical magazine that you could only gain fat from fat one day, and so overnight she cut fat from her diet. The weight piled on, she couldn’t understand why. After that followed years of failed attempt at dieting, everything from the GI diet to the caveman diet. She started getting sick. She developed fibromyalgia, abdominal pain and could barely move. She was embarrassed by her weight, and her lack of will power to starve it all of. The one day her daughter told her about an experiment they ahd done at school. They had all eaten different diets, and she, even though quite lean, had lost weight on the low carbohydrate high fat diet. Annika immediately decided to try. – I have tried everything already, what do I have to loose? – She thought.
And she did loose something, her weight and her diseases. Three months down the road she was healthy, normal weight and preaching her newly found religion.
When word came out that she was recommending a diet that went against everything that the government had set up as guidelines, she was warned that she could loose her job as a doctor.” I decided to quit then and there when I read the letter”, she told us. “ Two dietitians filled a complaint against me as well, urging the government to strip me of my medical license, but after years of investigation, the establishment admitted that I was in my right to spread my story”.
She spoke passionately about her discovery, told her own story, and the story of others that had their life changed by her diet, and with almost every sentence questioned our beliefs and practices. The studies, guidelines, organizations, politics, regulations and the money that is poured into it all every year.
“We don’t need carbohydrates; we need natural fat, from animals. That is what we are made to eat. Today the government still bombard us with the myth that fat is bad for us, and they don’t even have studies to back it up with. Eating this yellow shoe cream (margarine), the devils paste, instead, with all its additives unnatural oils and processed nature. Eat natural fat instead I say, and forget about the carbohydrates.”
During the break I approached her and asked if she was fine with me taking some photos with my flash on while she was on stage. I had noticed that I was the only photographer there, and didn’t want to disturb her while on stage. “Sure, its fine” “A picture together maybe?” I asked. I sat down, the event manager balanced the camera and took a picture.
I sat down, the even manager balanced the camera and took a picture.
We talked a little, I avoided talking about the diet as I knew it would probably spark a fuelled discussion. It seemed pointless to attack her, as many had already done; I had come to meet the person behind the headlines, not to prove her wrong. She seemed somewhat intimidated by my approach, and that surprised me. The whole event seemed like a cult, and I had crashed the party.
The bell rang, it was time to head back. We shook hands again and I thanked her for her time. I hadn’t noticed the long line to get her signature, and I got angry glares as they where hushed away from the stand. I heard some of them whisper that I was one of ‘them’- probably referring to the dietitians.

It was hard not to comment on the diet, she had no ground to stand on. At the same time she did do a important job. What do we really know? I didn’t agree with her on the diet, but I rappreciated that she raised very important questions towards the whole food industry and the government. It is true that we do put our heads in the sand; few of us challenge what we are being taught. I thought to myself, this woman really believes what she is saying, and she has every right to say it out loud. I am a strong believer of freedom of speech, and I think that she is in every right to question our beliefs and practices. After all, that is a basic human right on which democracy is based on.
After the break she told the wonders of the LCHF diet. The LCHF diet could cure everything from cancer and heart disease, to perfect dental health and pregnancies for women suffering from poly ovarian cystic syndrome, and answered questions at the end. Most people wanted to know if they would be cured for various diseases, but I had a different question for her:
“ Hi. I know there has been a lively debate in the media between you and the dietitians and other professions. But what messages would you like to pass on to the dietetics students, the ones that are still in the learning process?”
“They can’t keep going on like this” she said “…giving these advice” The room was completely silent as everybody understood that there was an ‘enemy’ among them and I felt hundreds of eyes piercing in the dark. I have never been in a room full of people that hate me before, I felt like waving a white flag and say – I come in peace. I honestly just wanted to hear her side. “They have to understand that I am right” she continued, a little brash, I heard a few laughs “ and others that say the same. Because I am not the only one saying this” she said and turned away from the stage.
“Lets take one more question and then we call it a day” she muttered.
I am not going to judge her as a person. I do not know her. I admire her stamina and that she is so driven. It is extremely hard to speak your mind in a country such as Sweden. I do on the other hand think that she can raise awareness in a more constructive manner than what she has been doing, and I am furious at her attacks towards my colleagues, but they have not reacted kindly back either to be fair.
I am going to think for myself, but I will embrace the expertise and knowledge from my professors around me, but as always I will:
question everything; assume nothing- if not you won’t learn a thing.