I long for the day when government advice is unbiased and unaffected by big companies and profit. That’s right, most advice the public receives about healthy food choices are driven toward profit. What’s got me going this time is the latest dietary advice we’ve seen lately in the media.
This past January we saw new Canadian dietary guidelines in the form of “A plate” and making international headlines “EAT – Lancet Report”. I’ll touch on these guys individually but both seem to be pushing vegan/vegetarian agendas. I think it’s well documented and backed by rigorous science that a plant based whole grain diet is deficient in many dietary nutrients necessary for healthy life. I believe a person can live a normal life this way if they supplement the vital nutrients missing from these kinds of diet.
The Canadian food guidelines have been refined to a round plate and a glass of water. I think there are positive changes here. Water is the drink of choice, gone is any mention of fruit juice, excellent. Gone are the food groups replaced by plate sections. Now here is where I think we got it wrong. I think the portions are incorrect. They have moved away from processed foods and refined sugars which is good but still recommend way too large a percentage of grains and fruit. On the other hand they are still demonizing meat and dairy. Why are we still telling people to minimize saturated fat and salt? As I’ve pointed out in in prior posts, there is NO good scientific evidence to support either is harmful to your health. If anything there is evidence to suggest the exact opposite! Further more, Canadian health spokespeople confessed that they didn’t even do their own research but relied on literature from the U.S. Dietary Guidelines.
The EAT – Lancet Report. This is a global dietary recommendation while basically vegan is supposed to better our planet and aid in reducing climate change. This is all similar to the Canadian guidelines asking us to minimize meat and diary while promoting grains, fruits and vegetables. The idea here is that a reduction in beef and other meat production while increasing plant production will decrease the volume of greenhouse gases vented to the atmosphere. No argument that factory farming is cruel and very unhealthy. These operations mostly use grain as feed which is not what these animals eat naturally. I think it’s important to minimize grain in our diets so why would we eat meat that is fattened with grain? I’ve seen time and again in my research that naturally grazing animals in organic farming operations actually promote healthy environments and improve soil and air quality. Soil quality is maintained and even improved from season to season. On the other hand, giant agricultural operations producing vast amounts of wheat, corn, and soy are destroying the huge parcels of land by over planting which removes all the nutrients from the soil. These operations are continually dumping chemicals on the land in attempts to keep the soil futile.
Conflict of interest. I think if one is concerned enough and digs even slightly into what motives much of the above recommendations, you’ll find all kinds of bias and conflicts of interest. You will probably find that these “experts” support a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. Members of these committees are also linked to large processed food companies like Kraft and General Mills. With respect to the EAT report, 31 of 37 committee members identified as plant based supporters or anti animal advocates. Imagine the money involved in big food and big pharmaceutical companies that would disappear if people stopped eating processed foods and sugar. They would stand to loose huge profits if everyone starts to eat real food. Many members of these committees also have financial interest in big food and pharma companies. Imagine a healthy society needing way less health care and drugs. Who wants that?
The grain producers are highly subsidised which make it very hard for the government to not support them. I believe American corn, wheat, soybean, cotton, and rice farmers sell their products at a lower cost than what it costs to produce them thanks to large government subsidies. These subsidies appear to mostly go to the big operations neglecting the smaller mom and pop farms. How is that unnatural vegetable oils made from the above grain seeds are still being recommended over mother natures saturated and monounsaturated oils that come from natural sources like olives or coconut.
To be clear, the above guidelines recommend a high carbohydrate, low fat diet. Is a high carbohydrate diet the healthiest choice? Carbohydrates especially when highly processed making them easily digestible spike insulin. This diet promotes a state of elevated insulin throughout the day. High insulin levels are associated with inflammation. Inflammation is now been associated with atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and many other chronic diseases. High carbohydrate diets are also closely linked to our ever increasing obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemics. Here’s the big question; why are we still promoting a diet that is obviously not working and seems to be the opposite of healthy? Why are we told to avoid healthy saturated fat and reduce salt intake when the cases against them have been proven wrong? Go figure…
Please checkout Nina Teicholz’s site “Nutrition Coalition”. https://www.nutritioncoalition.us
P.S. Comments are welcome…and if you still haven’t seen “The Magic Pill” on Netflix, I think it’s worth the time…
Rick Keto Ironman 