2002.06/19 Dietary Guidelines and Food Politics

EXCERPTED FROM A MESSAGE TO JENNIFER HERMAN

Greetings!

So I was just at a nutrition seminar last week featuring Marion Nestle
(author of Food Politics)
  http://www.foodpolitics.com/
and learned some things that might interest you.

It turns out that the US Govt, for the last century or so, has been
recommending that our caloric intake be about
  20% from proteins and high protein sources
  30% from fats
  50% from carbohydrates, in particular complex carbs and grains

When I found out about this it shocked the beegeebees out of me.  Remember
when I was on the Atkins diet?
  30% proteins
  30% fats
  40% carbs
Once I noticed that I was loosing too much weight I naturally corrected my
diet to, guess what, the govt recommended intake.  So I did some more
investigation on DHHS recommendations (food pyramid, dietary guidelines,
report on fats and cholesterol, etc.) and discovered that not only were they
giving sound dietary advice based on current nutritional findings but also
that they had boiled down recommendations to useful and easily applicable
guidelines.  For example, check this out:
  http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2000/document/contents.htm
This has got to be the clearest and best advice I've heard so far.

Fats are more tricky, because at the moment there isn't a standardized way to
measure them apart from hydrogenation and saturation.  The DHHS recommends
that no more than 30% of our calories come from fat, in particular
  mono- and poly-unsaturated fats and essential fatty acids
We should be avoiding
  saturated fats
  hydrogenated fats / oils
  trans fats / oils
  any of the above in conjuction with large amounts of cholesterol
e.g.
  http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/dga/dga95/lowfat.html
  http://www.wellness.gatech.edu/nutrition/fat.htm (okay, this isn't a govt
  site but it's pretty kick butt nonetheless  :-)

Anyway, the reason why we always see "eat low fat diet" messages is because
currently people eat too much fat, and the healthy choice is to eat less.
Around the 1900s or so people were eating too little fat, the govt
recommendation was a 35% fat caloric intake, and the message was "eat more".
So the "low fat diet" doesn't mean we shouldn't have any fat; it means we
should keep it to 30% or less of our intake; in particular, we should be
careful about what types of fats we eat.

In summary, the DHHS knows that the hell it's doing, and the precursor
nutritional agencies have been similarly studly (with the exception of
the USDA, which for awhile in the 1970s and 80s was little more than a stooge
agency serving the food industry).

So the natural question is, if the govt has been diligent at providing us
with the most current, useful, and relevant dietary information, why the
hell don't we know about it?  I had never heard before this seminar about
the caloric intake profile; I had to come up with it through my own
experimentation.

The simple answer is: advertising market share.

The US govt spends about $10M / year on promoting and distributing sound
nutrional advice; in all cases, information is available for free to the
public but promotions are minimal.  Altoids alone spends about $10M / year in
advertising; Coca-Cola, around $200M; MacDonalds, about $500M.  The US govt
has less than %0.1 advertising market share compared to the food industry,
and consequently their sound dietary message of "eat less and more
responsibly" gets lost among the maelstrom of "eat more of our stuff"
messages.

The unease that you expressed years ago about advertising was prophetic.  US
nutrition is no longer determined by government recommendations or informed
consumer decision; it's a vast beast fed constantly by the food industry (in
particular, those of processed foods).  Moreover, the consequences are
enormous:
  skyrocketing obesity among all age groups, in particular the young
  rampant diabetes, average age of onset down to 31 years old from 40
  heart disease the number one killer in the US, previously non-existent
  etc., etc.

Anyway, I thought you might like to know about all this.  We are not alone in
our observation that eliminating sugar is a good thing, or that fats aren't
bad.  In fact, apparently people have known it for years.  I have been
galvanized by these events to once again change my eating habits; this time,
to the govt recommended profile.

Bon Vivant!
_____________________________________________________________________________
KIM E LUMBARD                          Web Page = http://KimLumbard.com/
303 E 71st St Apt 1B                   E-Mail   = [Deleted due to spambots]
New York, NY 10021-4717                Mobile   = +1 (626) 429-4492
                                              or  +1  MANIC   ZIGZAG