The more things change
A new study offers a critical look at the regular updates to the USDA dietary guidelines.
Here we go again The USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services is gearing up for yet another round of revisions to its dietary guidelines. Unfortunately, these regular updates always seem like a case of “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Sure, when the last version came out in 2005, it did include a larger focus on whole grains and “healthy fats,” but, let’s be honest: Other than those few minor tweaks, not a whole lot about these recommendations has REALLY changed in the past several decades.
But perhaps this time will be different — if the advisory committee in charge of the updates heeds the warnings of a recent study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The lead researcher of that study commented that “The message delivered by these guidelines might actually have had a negative impact on health, including our current obesity epidemic. The possibility that these dietary guidelines might actually be endangering health is at the core of our concern about the way the guidelines are currently developed and issued.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
While the current system does recommend fruits, vegetables, and lean meats, they don’t factor in the harmful effects pesticides and antibiotics have on most commercially raised varieties. Another huge drawback of the USDA guidelines is the huge nod given to dairy: Right now, they call for 3 cups of dairy products per day for most adults! As you’ve read before in both the Health eTips and in Dr. Wright’s Nutrition & Healing newsletter, dairy products cause a whole host of health problems, from ADHD to asthma to increased risk of bone fractures and prostate cancer — and 3 cups per day is sure to put you on the fast track to any one of them.
And considering they only recommend 3 cups of dark, leafy greens per WEEK, it’s apparent that the priorities are more than a little skewed…
So until they get them ironed out, you’re better off following the dietary recommendations Dr. Wright has been offering his readers and patients at the Tahoma Clinic have for years. For more information about the specifics of this “original human diet,” refer back to the January 2003 issue of Nutrition & Healing. Subscribers can download this issue for free by visiting www.wrightnewsletter.com and logging on to the Archives with the username and password listed on page 8 of your most recent newsletter.
Source:
“Work underway for 2010 dietary guidelines,” FoodNavigator USA (www.foodnavigatorusa.com), 4/14/08
