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According to the 2015 DGAC, eggs, meat, das, and the influence of interested industries. 4,5 Americans
butter and full-fat dairy are still to be limited or This entrenchment has resulted in millions of
eliminated from the diet altogether. Consumption U.S. taxpayer dollars spent on nutrition poli- will now be
of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lowfat or cies, programs and practices that do not result in allowed to
no-fat dairy, fish, and lean cuts of poultry are good health, while the very same taxpayers are consume
encouraged, and, with restrictions on fat intake expected to shoulder the blame for these negative
relaxed, Americans will now be allowed to con- outcomes. even more
sume even more vegetable oil than before. vegetable oil
While the 2015 DGAC has acknowledged HISTORY OF THE DGA than before.
that when Americans replaced dietary fat with When the first national nutrition recom-
starches and sugars obesity rates climbed, there mendations for the prevention of chronic disease,
has been no recognition of the relationship the 1977 Dietary Goals for Americans, were
between this phenomenon and DGA guidance. originally proposed, not only was the content
Rather, the implication remains that high rates of the recommendations hotly debated, the very
of being overweight and obese in America are concept of one-size-fits-all, population-wide
due to the fact that Americans have simply failed dietary advice was itself highly controversial.
to comply with what the U.S. Departments of The 1977 Dietary Goals introduced a diet―high
Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human in grains and cereals and low in fat, with few
Services (DHHS)―the two government agencies animal products, and vegetable oils substituting
in charge of the DGA―have determined is best for animal fats―that was an extreme departure
for the public. “Poor diet and physical inactivity from what Americans were then eating. Not only
are the most important factors contributing to was the diet recommended by the 1977 Goals a
an epidemic of overweight,” not poor dietary radical change for many Americans, the very idea
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recommendations based on inadequate science. that the federal government could know what
foods were best for any given individual was a
A PRIMARY MISCONCEPTION dramatic shift in how public health nutrition was
In fact, a primary misconception in public understood and administered.
health nutrition is that current national nutrition Before the 1977 Goals were created, the
polices are based on scientific agreement about determination of which foods were “good” for
what constitutes a healthy diet. However from you and which were “bad” was located within
the beginning, federal dietary guidance has been the family and community, rather than with the
based more on ideology, including romantic no- government. Packaged food did not carry a nu-
tions of returning to a “natural” way of eating, trition label, and government dietary guidance
than science. Although nutrition science has focused on acquisition of adequate essential
changed dramatically in the thirty-five years nutrition, rather than the avoidance of foods that
since the first national dietary recommendations might cause chronic disease. Despite the lack of
were issued, the recommendations themselves government guidance on how to prevent chronic
have remained virtually unchanged. The histori- disease through nutrition, heart disease rates had
cal and cultural influences behind federal dietary been decreasing in America since 1968, and in
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recommendations, their controversies and their 1975, less than 15 percent of the population was
consequences, warrant a close critical examina- considered obese.
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tion. They demonstrate that although science and In many regards, the health of Americans in
policy perform very different functions, they can the 1970s had never been better. However, con-
be mutually reinforcing. Though this does serve cerns about “lifestyle-related” diseases perme-
to make science more political, it does not make ated the consciousness of much of middle class
policy more scientific. America, and food manufacturers responded
A cascade of unintended consequences has accordingly. The American Heart Association
resulted from those original dietary recommen- (AHA) had created a national platform for a
dations, guidance that remains entrenched, held theory proposed by a physiologist named Ancel
in place by politics, ideology, institutional agen- Keys, which asserted that dietary fat—espe-
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