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INCREASING CHRONIC DISEASES nologist specializing in obesity has noted, “When Obesity was
With federal nutrition directives to avoid you take the fat out of a recipe, food tastes like
saturated fat and cholesterol driving food manu- cardboard, and you need to replace it with some- not the only
facturing and consumer demand, eating patterns thing—that something being sugar.” HFCS of- thing that
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in America have changed dramatically since the fered a cheap, plentiful, sugary replacement for increased in
first DGA were created. Consumers, whether the animal fats that Americans were now told to
they were interested in reducing the saturated avoid. For example, “fat-free” yogurt, sweetened prevalence
fat content of their diet or not, were faced with with HFCS, appeared on grocery store shelves, since the
food choices that had changed according to the as a “healthy” alternative to full-fat yogurt. creation of
DGA. As a result, despite accusations that they In time, scientists on the 2000 DGAC real-
have ignored federal dietary advice, Americans ized that the emphasis on reducing fat in the diet the first DGA.
have increased their intake of flour and cereal could lead to “adverse metabolic consequences” In fact, trends

products and the vegetable oils that could be resulting from a high intake of sugars and starch- indicate that,
added to them, changes that are in line with es. They went on to note that “an increasing
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DGA recommendations. Consumption data prevalence in obesity in the United States has since 1980,
gathered from national health surveys indicate corresponded roughly with an absolute increase the rates of
that virtually all of the increase in calories in the in carbohydrate consumption.” At least some of many chronic
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past 30 years has come from carbohydrate foods that increase in carbohydrate consumption came
(starches and sugars such as would be found in from the HFCS that replaced saturated fats in diseases have
flour and cereal products), while calories from food. increased
saturated (animal) fats have decreased. While Obesity was not the only thing that increased dramatically.
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these changes are in line with recommendations in prevalence since the creation of the first DGA.
from the DGA, they may have transformed the In fact, trends indicate that, since 1980, the rates
American diet in ways incompatible with good of many chronic diseases have increased dra-
health. matically. Prevalence of heart failure and stroke
In 1988, a vegetarian-oriented food activist has increased significantly. Rates of new cases
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group, Center for Science in the Public Interest of all cancers have gone up. Rates of diabetes
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(CSPI), warned the American public against the have tripled. In addition, although body weight
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dangers of saturated fat and campaigned for the is not in itself a measure of health, as the 2000
food industry to switch from beef tallow and lard DGAC noted, rates of overweight and obesity
to partially hydrogenated vegetable oil—specifi- have increased as Americans have adopted the
cally soybean oil. This is the kind of oil that is eating patterns recommend by the DGA.
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now associated with harmful trans fats. But in In all of these categories, the health di-
1988, CSPI insisted trans fats were an improve- vide between black and white Americans has
ment over saturated fat from animals. Oil seed persisted or worsened, with black Americans
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companies were prepared with the technology especially negatively affected by the increase
to make this switch; Earl Butz’s agricultural in diabetes. When following DGA recommen-
policies provided plenty of the soybeans needed dations, African-American adults gain more
to create the oils that would be partially hydro- weight than their Caucasian counterparts, and
genated. Thus, far from resisting this change, low-income individuals have increased rates of
“nearly all targeted firms responded by replacing diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol. 42,43
saturated fats with trans fats.” For consumers, Despite adherence to healthy eating patterns as
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CSPI’s successful campaign meant that natural determined by the DGA, studies have shown
animal fats that cause no danger to health were that African-American children remain at
replaced with highly-processed and harmful higher risk for development of diabetes and
trans fats―whether the public wanted those prediabetic conditions. African-Americans are
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changes or not. almost twice as likely to have diabetes as non-
Surplus corn provided another substitute for Hispanic white Americans, and these differences
saturated fats in the form of high-fructose corn in health outcomes have not been adequately
syrup (HFCS). As Dr. Robert Lustig, an endocri- explained by social and economic disparities in
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