forwarded
[*quote*]
A nonprofit physicians organization came out hard against updated dietary
guidelines
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/736566 recently issued by
the US Department of Agriculture (UDSA), suing the government to force the
USDA to change its recommendations.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) alleges that the
USDA knowingly hides harmful foods behind obscure language in the report.
The guidelines are published jointly every 5 years by the USDA and the US
Department of Health and Human Services and are supposed to represent the
most current and sound scientific information available. The dietary
guidelines are the blueprint for all federal nutrition programs, including
school meals.
However, PCRM says in its lawsuit, rather than giving Americans nutritional
advice that would help them fight obesity, the government instead bowed to
conflicts of interest with agribusiness and blurred the message about foods
Americans should eat less of.
PCRM President Neal Barnard, MD, was clear in his criticism of the USDA.
"The dietary guidelines are the best they've ever been, but we're pushing to
make them better," he said in an interview with *Medscape Medical News*.
"It's critically important yet fundamentally dishonest when they have an
explicit message of what foods to eat more of, but when it comes to foods to
eat less of, they hide behind biochemical codes," he said. "It's
intentional. And it doesn't help the school nutritionist designing school
lunch menus or a food planner in a rural town."
[*/quote*]
rest on
http://www.medscape.com with that title (free registration required)