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The evidence is too weak to justify telling individuals to eat less beef and pork, according to new research. The findings “erode public trust,” critics said. Public health officials for years have urged Americans to limit consumption of red meat and processed meats because of concerns that these foods are linked to heart disease, cancer and other ills. But on Monday, in a remarkable turnabout, an international collaboration of researchers produced a series of analyses concluding that the advice, a bedrock of almost all dietary guidelines, is not backed by good scientific evidence. If there are health benefits from eating...

If you look up "whole milk" in the government's official Dietary Guidelines, it states pretty definitively that people should only drink skim or 1% milk. "If you currently drink whole milk," it says, "gradually switch to lower fat versions." This is the same advice the government has been issuing for many years. And it's wrong

Congressional Republicans are pushing back against proposed dietary guidelines that urge Americans to consider the environment when deciding what foods to eat. House and Senate spending bills say the guidelines must focus only on nutrition and diet. That’s a clear effort to thwart a recommendation by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee that eating a diet higher in vegetables and other plant-based foods is better for the environment than eating a diet based more on foods from animals. The advice from a government advisory panel of independent doctors and nutrition experts has raised the ire of the meat industry. The dietary...

The meat industry is seeing red. Meat companies have tried to rehabilitate an image tarnished in recent years by health and environmental concerns. Now the industry is swiftly and aggressively working to discredit a proposal for new dietary guidelines that recommends people eat less red and processed meat. The proposal last month by a government advisory committee also relegates the health benefits of lean meat to a footnote to the main recommendations. “We’ve been put in a position over the years to almost be apologizing for our product; we’re not going to do that anymore,” said Barry Carpenter, the president...

Casus Belly: Gov’t will dictate our eating habits by Daniel Clark As if the mere existence of a federal entity called the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee wasn’t chilling enough, just wait until you see the suggestions that body is making to the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. The DGAC is proposing that Washington dictate our eating habits through coercion, and stating this goal as if it were as innocuous a governmental function as the issuing of a new stamp. In what it calls its 2015 “Scientific Report” (and who wants to oppose “science?”), the DGAC “highlights the...

Last week, many newspapers ran some version of a Washington Post piece entitled “The U.S. government is poised to withdraw longstanding warnings about cholesterol.” Reporter Peter Whoriskey lavishes more than 1800 words on a story that is well-summarized in his first two paragraphs: The nation’s top nutrition advisory panel has decided to drop its caution about eating cholesterol-laden food, a move that could undo almost 40 years of government warnings about its consumption. The group’s finding that cholesterol in the diet need no longer be considered a “nutrient of concern” stands in contrast to the committee’s findings five years ago,...

The U.S. government is poised to withdraw longstanding warnings about cholesterol in your diet The nation's top nutrition advisory panel has decided to drop its caution about eating cholesterol-laden food, a move that could undo almost 40 years of government warnings about its consumption. [...] The current U.S. guidelines call for restricting cholesterol intake to 300 milligrams daily. American adult men on average ingest about 340 milligrams of cholesterol a day, according to federal figures. That recommended figure of 300 milligrams, Eckel said, is "just one of those things that gets carried forward and carried forward even though the evidence...

Every five years, the federal Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services revise their Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a publication that sets the direction for federal nutrition-education programs. In an age when aggressive government agencies in places like New York City seek a greater hand in shaping Americans’ diets, the next set of guidelines, published later this year, could prove more controversial than usual because increasing scientific evidence suggests that some current federal recommendations have simply been wrong. Will a public-health establishment that has been slow to admit its mistakes over the years acknowledge the new research...

By stressing the importance of a carbohydrate-based, low-fat diet, current U.S. dietary guidelines may have unexpectedly contributed to the current obesity epidemic, according to researchers. In accordance with national recommendations, Americans have slightly reduced their fat intake, wrote Dr. Paul Marantz of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, and his coauthors. But their carbohydrate and total-calorie intakes have increased, along with the rate of national obesity (Am. J. Prev. Med. 2008;34:234–40). The observation is not enough to establish a causal link, but enough data exist to make at least an inference. “The hypothesis that dietary fat admonitions actually...

  HOME  >    Sandy Szwarc Contributor, TCS Biographical        related articles Political Expediency vs. Science The Empire of Alarmists Strike Back An Infantile Policy Don't Eat This Book -- It's Indigestible The Fat Lady Ain't Singing Yet     articles by author 'You Can Relax About Food and Eat What You Want' The Mad Fatter Best for Mothers, Best for Babies Bon Appetit! Food Nannies Hawk the Hawkeye State       Font Size: MyPyramid Scheme By Sandy Szwarc  Published   06/15/2005   TCS  Many of us learn what foods to eat for good nutrition from the government's food guide pyramid -- that...