It’s hilarious to read that members of the Dietary Guidelines Panel feel that a campaign to bring a different viewpoint to the table is harmful.
Check this out from The Money Behind The Fight for Healthy Eating:
When Nina Teicholz called out the authors of the federal dietary recommendations for shoddy science and conflicts of interest in a prominent medical journal late last month, she left out some key details about herself.
While she presents herself as a journalist, her approach is more crusading than impartial. Her most recent book is a take-down of the nutrition establishment called, “The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet,” which advocates the health benefits of a high-fat diet – considered heresy in many quarters. She hands out signed copies like calling cards in meetings with lawmakers and high-ranking administration officials such as Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack.
She’s also an organizer of a fledgling group that is engaged in a vigorous advocacy campaign to reshape how the U.S. government determines what makes a healthy diet. That effort is being bankrolled by billionaire Houston philanthropists, John and Laura Arnold—who also underwrote her article in the British Medical Journal, which she does disclose.
The lobbying alarms some who fear it will further politicize a process that informs nearly every aspect of how Americans eat, from what millions of school children are fed each day and the advice doctors give to their patients.
“It’s dangerous and it’s harmful,” Dietary Guidelines panel member Barbara Millen said of the campaign.
Here’s the current thoughts around our diets from the same article…
The process to update the Dietary Guidelines – which happens every five years – has been unusually contentious this time. This year’s report recommends that Americans to consume a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, whole grains, seafood, legumes and nuts and to eat less red and processed meats, sugar and processed foods. It also suggests emphasizing plant-based foods because they are better for the environment– sacrilege to food and agriculture industry groups, which unleashed a lobbying bonanza on the Hill.
Those recommendations are still undergoing review by USDA and the Health and Human Services Department. Eventually – probably in the next two or three months – the government will publish the Dietary Guidelines as a final document.
I’m sure the beef lobbyists are thrilled with the idea of eating less red and processed meats.
Exciting times for food, let’s see what December’s Dietary Guidelines bring us.
