Michael I McBurney

INTRODUCTION The global prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing worldwide.1 Overweight (body mass index (BMI) ≥25 and <30 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health.2 The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended.

Open AccessCommunication by Joanna L. Fiddler 1,2,*, Michael I. McBurney 3,4 and Jere D.

In an insightful paper, Archer, Lavie and Hill (2018) argue that controversies regarding the health effects of dietary sugar, salt, fat and cholesterol are not driven by legitimate observations. They discuss the fatal flaws of Memory-Based Dietary Assessment Methods (M-BMs): Dietary intake estimates are ‘mere guesswork’ and not accurate measurements of dietary intake.