OPINION:
Anybody who has not realized that the federal government’s involvement in dietary guidelines has been a public health disaster is probably already dead from following the guidelines (“Gum, bottled water, pizza bagels want to be called ’healthy’,” Web, Oct. 30). There are 30 million diabetics in the U.S. population, and that many again with pre-diabetes, otherwise referred to as metabolic syndrome. Asians as well as African-Americans, not to mention Native Americans, have been especially susceptible to the garbage which has emanated from the FDA over the past several decades. You don’t have to appear fat, either.
As far as raising the flag of “science” or “evidence-based” recommendations is concerned, you can be certain that either there is no scientific evidence, or it has been ignored. The latest example of this is the total refusal of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, currently responsible for the guidelines, to follow the recommendations of the National Academy Of Sciences to reform their approach to the scientific review and level of transparency associated with the recommendations. After all, why depart from the status quo if you can get away with it?
The article mentions several common nutritional notions involving fat, cholesterol and sugar that are regularly questioned and debated. Well, the debate was all settled in the late 1970s when George McGovern took the reins and dropped the USDA food pyramid on the U.S. population. It went international soon afterward. What followed, worldwide, were decades of obesity and chronic disease never seen before in human history. Would it really have been worse if industry had been allowed to make up whatever claims it wanted regarding products? At least then people would have been forced to be responsible for what they ate rather turning the problem over to the experts, who turned out to be both corrupt and stupid.
SAMUEL BURKEEN
Reston, Va.
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