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As reported by Andrea Petersen in the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, rejected recommendations from a scientific committee of 20 academics and doctors, to cut “the limit for added sugars in the diet to 6% of daily calories from 10% in the current guidelines, citing rising rates of obesity and the link between obesity and health problems like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.”
This means national dietary guidelines, popularized in the Food Pyramid, will remain fundamentally unchanged for the next 5 years. Andrea Petersen notes the wide impact of these guidelines: “They shape school lunch programs, mold state and local health-promotion efforts, and influence what food companies produce.”
Spokesperson Brandon Lipps, Deputy Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services at the USDA, stated that the USDA decided not to reduce sugar levels because, “The new evidence is not substantial enough to support changes to quantitative recommendations for either added sugars or alcohol.”
What more evidence does the USDA need? As I’ve written in chapter 2 of The Great Healing, over 80% of illness and disease in America is a result of poor nutrition. 70% of Americans are now overweight or obese. Childhood obesity rates have tripled since 1980. Obesity leads to diabetes and half of all Americans of all ages have either been diagnosed with diabetes or have diabetes and don’t yet realize it. Diabetes is the gateway to heart disease, cancer, loss of brain function, liver disease, kidney and renal failure.
There have been 100s of studies, including one in Europe with over 500,000 participants spanning seven years, documenting the connection between poor diet, high sugar intake, and disease.
What more evidence does the USDA need?
Andrea Petersen points out that, “Food industry groups had lobbied intensely against the scientific committee’s proposed new limits,” and cites this example: “The American Beverage Association, which represents drink makers including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, urged the government to keep the 10% added-sugars… When asked if pressure from business groups had played a role in the government’s decision, Mr. Lipps said ‘to the extent that stakeholders provided input about whether the science was being properly reviewed, we took that into consideration.’”
Health-conscious Americans realize that the Food Pyramid is a cruel joke and a travesty. However, so many of us remain unaware. And worse, it establishes a standard for foods served in school lunch programs, hospitals, etc. It also provides legal cover for our food industry which continues to manufacture and market unhealthy sugar-rich processed foods.
Mr. Lipp and the USDA cannot be unaware of the glaring health issues impacting American lives. Health care costs today consume 18% of the federal budget. 83% of overall health care costs are related to preventable illness and disease caused by poor nutrition.
Consumption of just one type of sugar (there are hundreds), high-fructose corn syrup, in the United States increased 1,000% from 1970 to 1990. It has now become the biggest source of calories in our diet with Americans consuming more than 50 pounds a year on average.
I believe Mr. Lipp and each member of the USDA who made this decision are personally responsible for the onslaught of illness, disease and death in store for millions of Americans over the next five years, based on the poor nutrition these dietary guidelines enable and perpetuate. Each one of them could have agreed with the scientific committee’s recommendations, and a world of supporting evidence, instead they were coerced by and appear to have caved to food industry pressure. They lack the integrity and fortitude necessary to be in their positions of authority. How will the consequences of this decision — the disease and suffering over the next five years for millions of Americans — weigh on their consciences? Burden their souls over the months and years to come? Carry with them into the hereafter?
Read the article here.