Just imagine, if you will, that you are in the market for a new car. You're looking for something reliable and safe that will provide you with excellent gas mileage. But, being a newbie car-shopper, you need some assistance in making your decision. Who should you turn to?
If you said, “Well obviously I would ask an executive at General Motors,” then you are painfully stupid. Obviously there's a conflict of interest there. Do you think that a GM exec is going to recommend you buy a Nissan Sentra? But don't feel bad … when it comes to nutrition our country has been just as painfully stupid for over a century.
We've turned to the USDA … a government entity in charge of both promoting and policing the food industry. The information they've churned out for decade after decade, known to most of us as the USDA Food Pyramid, has been … well, let's just say flawed.
The USDA Food Pyramid has its origins in the practice of agricultural chemistry in the late 1800s. Wilbur Olin Atwater, Ph.D., an agricultural chemist who founded and directed the Office of Experiment Stations (OES) for the USDA, wrote the first dietary guideline.
Atwater was a researcher, and received government funds to build a large respiration calorimeter for studying human metabolism. In 1902, Mr. Atwater published a USDA Farmer’s Bulletin which emphasized the importance of variety, proportionality, and moderation in healthful eating in the diets of American males. In his research, he determined that the calorie was a means to measure the efficiency of a diet. He calculated that different types of food produced different amounts of energy, and he stressed the importance of a cheap and efficient diet that included more proteins, beans, and vegetables, and to limit the intake of fat, sugar and other starchy carbohydrates.
Seems like we were off to a good start!
Before vitamins and minerals were even discovered, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published its first dietary recommendations to the nation in 1894. Soon after that, in 1916, the first food guide, called
Food For Young Children was published. Caroline Hunt, a nutritionist and the author, divided food into five groups: milk/meat, cereals, vegetables/fruits, fats/fatty foods, and sugars/sugary foods. It ignored Dr. Atwater’s advice to limit fat and sugar intake, and instead emphasized the newly discovered vitamins and minerals.
Prompted by President Franklin Roosevelt, a National Nutrition Conference was called to action in 1941. For the first time, the USDA came up with Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for Americans to follow. RDAs specified caloric intake as well as essential nutrients. Also, the USDA announced the
Basic Seven in 1943, which was a special modification of the nutritional guidelines to help people deal with the shortage of food supplies during the war.
My personal favorite piece of nutritional advice comes from the
Basic Seven: “
Eat any other foods you want!”
During this time, many other guides were issued with contradictory advice. In 1956, because of the confusion, the multiple food group recommendations were revised to the
Basic Four recommendation. Serving size recommendations were also added and the revisions were published in a booklet titled
Essentials of an Adequate Diet .. Facts for Nutrition Programs.
The four food groups in this document included: Milk, Meat, Fruits & Vegetables and Grain products.
In 1967, CBS aired a documentary on TV,
Hunger in America which reported the extent of hunger and malnutrition among low income groups in the United States. This show galvanized the American people into demanding the expansion of federal food assistance programs. In 1968, the Senate appointed Senator George McGovern to chair the "Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs" with the goal of wiping out hunger and malnutrition in the US.
By 1969 the committee wanted to secure further funding and began prying into other areas of health and nutrition. McGovern and several members of his staff had become familiar with the Ancel Keys' influence on the American Heart Association, which was proposing that fat and cholesterol consumption should be lowered for better heart health, even though the link between the two had never been proven in any scientific study.
... and thus the real corruption began!
In January 1977, after listening to the testimony of Ancel Keys and other doctors and scientists intent on promoting the unsupported Dietary Fat-Heart hypothesis, the Committee published the "
Dietary Goals for the United States" recommending that all Americans reduce their fat, saturated fat and cholesterol consumption, and increase their carbohydrate consumption to 55-60% of daily calories.
Nick Mottern, a former labor reporter for The Providence Journal, was assigned the task of researching and writing the first "
Dietary Goals for the United States." Mottern, who had no scientific background and no experience writing about science, nutrition, or health, believed his Dietary Goals would launch a "revolution in diet and agriculture in this country." He avoided the scientific and medical controversy by relying almost exclusively on Harvard School of Public Health nutritionist Mark Hegsted for input on dietary fat. Hegsted had studied fat and cholesterol metabolism in the early 1960s, and he believed unconditionally in the benefits of restricting fat intake.
During the 1980s, several other guidelines and reports were issued by various agencies. These included the Surgeon General’s
Report on Nutrition and Health and the National Research Council’s
Diet and Health Report. Both reports were heavily influenced by the low fat proponents.
The USDA leaned heavily on these reports in the revision of its USDA Food Pyramid guidelines in the early 1990s. Interestingly, the actual graphic for the USDA food pyramid came from Sweden.
The fruit and vegetable category made up the base of the original pyramid, to show that they were the most important component of the diet. Unfortunately, the food pyramid from back then is gone.
It was replaced with a grotesquely bastardized food pyramid containing five food groups; one of which is comprised of sugars and fats. Perhaps even worse is the fact that carbohydrates were made to be the base of the revisionist pyramid. The food pyramid is supposed to be a guideline that explains how our foods should ideally be proportioned, but instead, it came to identify merely what we do eat.
Luise Light, Ed.D, a former USDA nutritionist, wrote extensively about the food pyramid, long after she was asked to help recreate it. Since leaving the USDA, she has written the book, A Fatally Flawed Food Guide, which chronicles her experience. It explains how the food pyramid was not redesigned in the interests of health, but on behalf of those in the processed foods industry.
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Where we, the USDA nutritionists, called for a base of 5-9 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day, it was replaced with a paltry 2-3 servings (changed to 5-7 servings a couple of years later because an anti-cancer campaign by another government agency, the National Cancer Institute, forced the USDA to adopt the higher standard). Our recommendation of 3-4 daily servings of whole-grain breads and cereals was changed to a whopping 6-11 servings forming the base of the Food Pyramid as a concession to the processed wheat and corn industries. Moreover, my nutritionist group had placed baked goods made with white flour -- including crackers, sweets and other low-nutrient foods laden with sugars and fats -- at the peak of the pyramid, recommending that they be eaten sparingly.
To our alarm, in the 'revised' Food Guide, they were now made part of the Pyramid’s base. And, in yet one more assault on dietary logic, changes were made to the wording of the dietary guidelines from 'eat less' to 'avoid too much', giving a nod to the processed-food industry interests by not limiting highly profitable 'fun foods' (junk foods by any other name) that might affect the bottom line of food companies.
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But even this neutralized wording of the revised Guidelines created a firestorm of angry responses from the food industry and their congressional allies who believed that the 'farmers’ department' (USDA) should not be telling the public to eat less of anything.
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I vehemently protested that the changes, if followed, could lead to an epidemic of obesity and diabetes -- and couldn’t be justified on either health or nutritional grounds. To my amazement, I was a lone voice on this issue, as my colleagues appeared to accept the 'policy level' decision. Over my objections, the Food Guide Pyramid was finalized, although it only saw the light of day 12 years later, in 1992. Yet it appears my warning has come to pass."
In recent times, the pyramid has been changed yet again, so that it no longer gives any clear-cut recommendations whatsoever. It is fairly open to artistic interpretation. In fact, to me it just looks like a shit-load of food strewn about the place and some dude climbing on top of it. It doesn't serve a purpose. That is, unless your real agenda is to make people fat and diseased. The newer pyramid is completely useless, but it still manages to imply that carbohydrates are the most essential foods.
In the 1980's President Reagan cut spending on public health and filled USDA positions with people from the industries they are supposed to monitor.
Appointed officers by Reagan and Bush:
* First Secretary of Agriculture - From the hog industry
* Second Secretary of Agriculture - The President of the Meat Packer’s Association
* Head of the USDA Food Marketing & Inspection - The VP of the National Cattleman's Association, and later the President of the National Cattlemen's Association
Right now, if you look at appointed positions associated with the USDA and food inspection offices, for example:
* Secretary of Agriculture
* Senior Advisor on Food and Nutrition
* Deputy Secretary of Agriculture
* Director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
* Director of Consumer Nutrition and Health Research
* Administrator of Grain Inspection
... you will see they are former executives from:
* Monsanto's Calgene Corporation
* National Cattlemen's Beef Association
* National Pork Board
* National Pork Producers Council
* National Livestock and Meat Board
* Packers and Stockyards Administration
* Meat Export Federation
* Infinity Pork, LLC
* ConAgra Foods
It seems it would be more ethical (and healthy) to have unbiased, non-industry individuals regulating the quality of our food supply. When people begin to take control of their own health, and stop expecting governmental and corporate agencies to honestly tell them what to consume, then the nation will be healthy.
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April 2 2014
KING RICH
Weight: 186.6 lbs
BMI: 27.0
Body Fat: 25.2%
* How accurate are these numbers? Huh ... I don't really know. But I am using the Weight Watchers by Conair Scales Glass Body Analysis Scale Model WW52 to measure my stats. I am less concerned with the accuracy of the numbers themselves and more concerned with the change I hope to see in the future. For consistency's sake, these stats will always come from the same source and appear with my bi-weekly posts.
Most Recent 5K
JLGC Flashback 5K
League City TX
Official Time: 39:06.5
Improvement: 1:02.5
Many of you might not be happy with your current fitness level and be toying with the idea of changing your lifestyle. You may be contemplating incorporating more exercise and a better diet into your day-to-day routine. But be warned: Fitness Ain’t For Everybody!
