U.S. Government Nutrition Advice Is Stuck in 1980s
24th September 2015
U.S. government nutrition guidelines are based more on internal bias and outside agendas than sound science, according to a new article published in the respected medical journal BMJ. Despite ample advances in nutrition science over the past few decades, the government’s official Dietary Guidelines for Americans still rely heavily on ideas about healthy eating that were en vogue when the guidelines were first published in 1980—ideas that have long since shown to be suspect.
The latest report, two years in the making, still “fails to reflect much relevant scientific literature in its reviews of crucial topics and therefore risks giving a misleading picture,” writes journalist Nina Teicholz, author of The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat, and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet and a board member of the nonprofit Nutrition Coalition (a group dedicated to injecting more science into food policy), in the BMJ article. “The omissions seem to suggest a reluctance by the committee behind the report to consider any evidence that contradicts the last 35 years of nutritional advice.”
Anybody who looks to the government for nutrition advice deserves what he gets..