Why does the federal government issue damaging dietary guidelines?
Although the federal government once confined its dietary guidance to preventing undernutrition, by 1977 an epidemic of heart attacks was causing such anxiety that Senator George McGovern, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, released the first Dietary Goals for the United States. Predominantly based on the work of Dr. Ancel Keys and Dr. Mark Hegsted, the guidance advocated a low-fat (and therefore high carbohydrate) diet. Yet this demonization of animal fats did not fully fit the cardiac facts.
Government intervention in this area was premature, as was protested at the time by reputable authorities such as the American Medical Association. But the federal government’s promotion of low-fat diets and trans fatty acids was positively unhealthful to the heart. Equally, it seems to have fueled the obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemics. But the federal government’s agencies skewed the debate—partial data was sufficient to raise a red flag, while only exhaustive research would be accepted to clear a potential risk. Meanwhile, much of the federal government’s food advice (notably its MyPlate, and its predecessor the Food Guide Pyramid) is provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is conflicted in its interests as the USDA promotes the agricultural interest.
Food science, as a result of the power and money of its commercial sponsors, is prone to bias—and government, by inserting its own biases, has only amplified that science’s faults.
We should leave dietary advice to a public debate between the professional academic nutritionists rather than allow the government to provide spurious authority to claims that may not be justified.