Did you know there’s a list of federal government dietary guidelines for Americans?
Apparently it’s a highly-influential policy document that the government publishes every five years. The next one, which will be coming out shortly, will be the eighth edition.
So basically, for about forty years, the government has spent the time and money (your money) to determine what Americans should eat if they want to be healthy.
Not surprisingly, over the past 35 years, obesity rates have more than doubled. Today, nearly 40 percent of middle-aged adults, ages 40 to 59, are obese, and more than six percent of adults are severely obese.
Clearly folks are not paying attention to these guidelines. Or maybe they are, and these guidelines are just flawed.
I suspect its a bit of both, although when it comes to getting advice on nutrition, I’m not certain the government is the best source of knowledge.
Sustainable Diets
In the latest guideline listing, the USDA is focusing on what it calls sustainable diets.
According to Miriam Nelson, the Tufts University professor who heads the subcommittee on sustainability and safety …
“The reason to include sustainable diets, a new area to [the committee], is to recognize the significant impact of foods and beverages on environmental outcomes.”
Ironically, the government is the biggest offender when it comes to “environmental outcomes.” Particularly in the food space where every major industrial farming operation is subsidized by the tax payer.
If you don’t know, the government plows billions of dollars into agricultural subsidies that favor giant industrial agriculture operations that poison our water, pollute our air,, and squeeze every last nutrient out of our soil.
So when I hear the government is focusing on sustainability while forcing taxpayers to fund the very antithesis of sustainability, my bullshit meter goes off.
Priorities
Apparently, in an effort to be more “sustainable,” the USDA has decided to remove “lean meats” as a component of a healthy diet.
Not surprisingly, meat producers are losing their shit. And rightly so.
Chase Adams from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, responded to the news by saying …
“Production practices are not a part of the dietary guidelines as authorized by Congress”
And he’s right. But a number of environmentalists are actually applauding the decision to incorporate sustainability into these dietary guidelines. And they’ve been quite vocal about backing the government on this in the face of pressure from the meat industry.
Kari Hamerschlag of the group Friends of the Earth said …
“There is no doubt the USDA and the USHHS are under intense pressure from the meat industry and their defenders in Congress to squash important information about the major environmental impacts of food production.”
The whole thing is so absurd when you look at it.
The only reason these guidelines even exist is to ensure the government can influence what we grow and what we eat.
The meat industry used to love these guidelines because they were included. Now that they’re not, instead of fighting the entire scam altogether, they’re fighting to make sure that they can still be in on the whole thing.
Can’t say I blame them. After all, these folks have to answer to their shareholders. It’s still pretty shitty, though.
And boy what a bunch of suckers. So many environmentalists stand there and cheer these guidelines, but all that filthy lucre that keeps these highly-pollutive industrial agriculture machines humming is still pouring in. So much for priorities.
Jeff Siegel
The Libertarian Treehugger
