Do you wonder why the upcoming Dietary Guidelines for Americans is such a mess? Why it's possible to keep warning people for saturated fat (with a straight face, no less) and tell people to eat loads of grains for health? Why the Guidelines still appear to contribute to the obesity epidemic, rather than the opposite?
Dr. Michael Eades has just written a long post on the sad state of affairs, which is well worth reading:
Dr Michael R. Eades: Dietary Guidelines for Americans Science or ...?Before we go on, let me give you my view of it all after 30 plus years of observation. Of course the Advisory Report is not scientific. And the Dietary Guidelines themselves are even less scientific. They are a gumbo of consensus reporting by mainstream academicians, political fiddling, Big Agra diddling, and a huge amount of lobbying by a horde of disparate interests, all of whom stand to gain or lose by what's ultimately published in the Dietary Guidelines.
Like almost all solutions derived by committee, what results is something designed to appease as many interests as possible. And if these guidelines were described this way, I wouldn't have a problem with them. But they are not. They are presented as the latest and best that nutritional science has to offer. Which, sadly, is far from the case.
