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Another good read from Zoe Harcombe
I've copied her first and then last paragraph ... do go over and read more.
Link is at end of post.
"Did you know that, until the final quarter of the twentieth century, public health dietary advice in the US and the UK focused on minimum intakes, to ensure that populations consumed adequate nutrients? The US 1950s-1970s “Basic Four Foundation Diet” recommended four or more bread and cereal portions daily, two cups or more of milk and two or more servings of meat (Ref 1). The UK favoured micro nutrient recommendations; until the first macro nutrient guideline was introduced in 1950 with British Medical Association advice that dietary fat intake should provide a minimum of 25% of daily calories (Ref 2).
The first public health dietary guidelines to set maximum intakes were those announced by the US Select Committee on Nutrition and Human needs in 1977 (Ref 3). These were followed by(Carter, 1977) UK public health dietary advice issued by the National Advisory Committee on Nutritional Education in 1983 (Ref 4). Dietary recommendations in both cases focused on one macro nutrient, fat, and a component part of that macro nutrient, saturated fat. The specific targets were to i) reduce overall fat consumption to 30% of total energy intake and ii) reduce saturated fat consumption to 10% of total energy intake.
As there are only three macro nutrients (carbohydrate, protein and fat), and since protein tends to stay fairly constant in either a plant or animal based diet at approximately 15%, if fat is restricted, carbohydrate increases (and also – if carbohydrate is restricted, fat increases). Fat and carbohydrate are the two most dependent variables in the diet. As human diets restricted fat to c. 30%, therefore, carbohydrate increased to 55-60% of our dietary intake. Since these guidelines were introduced, epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes have developed: coincidence or cause?"
.....
"Eat real food!
The only guideline that the US government needed to issue was “Eat real food”! The only debate is then – what should that real food be? If we choose food for the micro nutrients it provides (vitamins and minerals), the answer is obvious. We need to prioritise meat, fish, eggs, dairy, non-starchy vegetables and sunflower seeds. Fruit, grains and starchy vegetables really don’t get a look in.
I suggest that for three key reasons – lobbying by the fake food industry; ignorance on the part of the dietary guidelines panel; and a reluctance to change views, as this would be seen as an admission of previous wrong doing – the 2015 guidelines are what they are. Americans are stuck with bad advice for another 5 years, just as they have been for the 35 years previously. The smart people will ignore these guidelines and work out for themselves that real food is the only choice and some real food is substantially better than others.
As Sally Fallon Morell says “Evolution is no longer the survival of the fittest, but the survival of the wisest.”
Be wise!"
http://www.zoeharcombe.com/2016/01/dietary-guidelines-for-americans-2015/
I've copied her first and then last paragraph ... do go over and read more.
Link is at end of post.
"Did you know that, until the final quarter of the twentieth century, public health dietary advice in the US and the UK focused on minimum intakes, to ensure that populations consumed adequate nutrients? The US 1950s-1970s “Basic Four Foundation Diet” recommended four or more bread and cereal portions daily, two cups or more of milk and two or more servings of meat (Ref 1). The UK favoured micro nutrient recommendations; until the first macro nutrient guideline was introduced in 1950 with British Medical Association advice that dietary fat intake should provide a minimum of 25% of daily calories (Ref 2).
The first public health dietary guidelines to set maximum intakes were those announced by the US Select Committee on Nutrition and Human needs in 1977 (Ref 3). These were followed by(Carter, 1977) UK public health dietary advice issued by the National Advisory Committee on Nutritional Education in 1983 (Ref 4). Dietary recommendations in both cases focused on one macro nutrient, fat, and a component part of that macro nutrient, saturated fat. The specific targets were to i) reduce overall fat consumption to 30% of total energy intake and ii) reduce saturated fat consumption to 10% of total energy intake.
As there are only three macro nutrients (carbohydrate, protein and fat), and since protein tends to stay fairly constant in either a plant or animal based diet at approximately 15%, if fat is restricted, carbohydrate increases (and also – if carbohydrate is restricted, fat increases). Fat and carbohydrate are the two most dependent variables in the diet. As human diets restricted fat to c. 30%, therefore, carbohydrate increased to 55-60% of our dietary intake. Since these guidelines were introduced, epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes have developed: coincidence or cause?"
.....
"Eat real food!
The only guideline that the US government needed to issue was “Eat real food”! The only debate is then – what should that real food be? If we choose food for the micro nutrients it provides (vitamins and minerals), the answer is obvious. We need to prioritise meat, fish, eggs, dairy, non-starchy vegetables and sunflower seeds. Fruit, grains and starchy vegetables really don’t get a look in.
I suggest that for three key reasons – lobbying by the fake food industry; ignorance on the part of the dietary guidelines panel; and a reluctance to change views, as this would be seen as an admission of previous wrong doing – the 2015 guidelines are what they are. Americans are stuck with bad advice for another 5 years, just as they have been for the 35 years previously. The smart people will ignore these guidelines and work out for themselves that real food is the only choice and some real food is substantially better than others.
As Sally Fallon Morell says “Evolution is no longer the survival of the fittest, but the survival of the wisest.”
Be wise!"
http://www.zoeharcombe.com/2016/01/dietary-guidelines-for-americans-2015/
