Americans could stand to start replacing carbs with fat. More bacon, fewer Bacos.
Thirty years ago, America declared war against fat. The inaugural edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published in 1980 and subsequently updated every five years, advised people to steer clear of “too much fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol,” because of purported ties between fat intake and heart disease. The message has remained essentially the same ever since, with current guidelines recommending that Americans consume less than 10 percent of their daily calories from saturated fat.
But heart disease continues to devastate the country, and, as you may have noticed, we certainly haven’t gotten any thinner. Ultimately, that’s because fat should never have been our enemy. The big question is whether the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, due out at the end of the year, will finally announce retreat.
Sooooo… That food pyramid heavy on the stuff ADM sells (Gee, I wonder how that happened?) turns out to not be all that good for you. Kinda like that “the sun is bad for you” bullshit caused people to not get enough vitamin D.
I find this part both typical and repugnant:
According to Meir Stampfer, a Harvard professor of nutrition and epidemiology who worked on the 2000 guidelines, scientists on this year’s committee know perfectly well what the evidence says. But few researchers want to shake the status quo or risk confusing the public. Robert Post, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, admits that when it comes to nutritional recommendations, “simple messages, few messages, targeted messages, are very important.” Ultimately, then, policymakers have to choose between keeping the message consistent and actually getting it right.
I’m not that old, but I’ve been around long enough to notice a trend:
When the government tells you something, more often than not, it’s wrong.
Yet another reason to not listen to the idiots in DC. Pass the bacon!
Best reason yet!