Don’t trust U.S. Dietary Guidelines

 In 1957, Ancel Keys, a charismatic and influential physiologist, launched the Seven Countries Study to confirm his hypothesis that saturated fat causes cardiovascular disease (the “diet-heart” hypothesis). To make sure his study confirmed his hypothesis, he “cherry picked” countries and participants most likely to support his idea. The results of his study were widely accepted, thanks, in part, to Dr. Paul Dudley White, an influential cardiologist and personal doctor for President Eisenhower, and later by the American Heart Association. Keys also influenced the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, which in turn influenced the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, as shown in the food pyramid from 1992. 

The base of that pyramid shows starchy foods along with instructions to eat 6-ll servings of “bread, cereal, rice and pasta”. The guidelines have not changed significantly.

In adhering to the high-carbohydrate, low-fat recommendations, we’ve increased our yearly consumption of grain by almost sixty pounds per person and our consumption of sweeteners, such as high-fructose corn syrup, by thirty pounds per person. We now drink twice as much soda as milk (milk contains saturated fat!). (I was horrified to see schools and parents switch from giving kids milk for their main beverage to giving them juice.)

Over the past 12 years, rigorous research has concluded that saturated fats have no effect on “major cardiovascular outcomes,” including heart attacks, strokes or mortality. As the American College of Cardiology states, "The recommendation to limit dietary saturated fatty acid intake has persisted despite mounting evidence to the contrary." Nevertheless, the now-discredited “diet-heart hypothesis” continues to influence nutrition policy—with disastrous results. Beginning in the early eighties, the incidence of obesity started rising sharply, along with Type 2 diabetes. For example, the number of young people under the age of 20 with Type 2 diabetes grew by 95% from 2001 to 2017. A third of all people over 65 are diabetic. (Carbohydrates spike blood sugar.)

One of the biggest studies on people with Type 2 diabetes, conducted at the University of Indiana, found that after one year on a low carb diet, 62% reversed their diabetes (were no longer diagnosed as diabetic), and 94% reduced or entirely eliminated reliance on insulin. 

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for America governs our nation’s top nutrition policy, which affects  food manufacture, labelling, food programs within schools and hospitals, as well as recommendations by doctors and dieticians. Guidelines are produced every five years, beginning in 1980. The Guidelines Committee are working on new guidelines, which so far do not appear to be significantly different from earlier guidelines. Maybe this is why: a number of research organizations, such as Public Health Nutrition, have revealed that 95% of the members on the expert committee for the 2020 U.S. Dietary Guidelines had conflicts of interest with food or pharmaceutical companies, including Kellogg, Abbot, Kraft, Mead Johnson, General Mills, and Dannon.

A stalwart group of people, The Nutrition Coalition, have been working hard to influence the Guidelines Committee, a tough job, but a worthy one. I trust them. In February of this year they reported that, at the kickoff meeting of the Guidelines Committee, a USDA official acknowledged that the Guidelines do NOT apply to people with obesity, diabetes or any other diet-related condition. Huh? That would be the majority of Americans.

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