Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Department of Agriculture? More like Deparment of STUPID!
Recently the US Department of Agriculture recommended that people eat 2-3 servings of dairy a day; they contend that dairy is a very healthy food and that it provides calcium, vitamins, as well as protein in a natural form. I might point out that these are the same groups that gave us the original food pyramid, the one that said we should eat 6-11 servings of bread a day. My problem with the food pyramid was not only that it turned out to be massively wrong, but that it wasn't created with people's health in mind. It was created by agricultural lobbies that had a vested interest in seeing the grain industry do well.
And that's the problem here too. The dairy industry has been flagging over the last 50 years, and consumption of dairy products is at new lows, despite the "got milk?" campaign. So they've resorted to straight-out lying to us. The Harvard Food Pyramid (created with actual nutrition in mind, using the best evidence available to us at present) does suggest using dairy as a calcium supply. But there is conflicting evidence; some studies suggest that dairy causes allergies, and yet others suggest that calcium uptake in milk is not very good.
The jury is still out in regards to dairy products, and they may very well turn out to be good for us. But the fact remains that they've simply jumped the gun, caving to a large industrial interest rather than actually caring about the health of its citizens. I'm sure that the USDA has plenty of research pointing to dairy being good for you, but do they simply ignore the research that suggests otherwise? Anyway, I recommend the Harvard food pyramid. It's just pathetic that we have to resort to a private university for reliable and unbiased information.
And that's the problem here too. The dairy industry has been flagging over the last 50 years, and consumption of dairy products is at new lows, despite the "got milk?" campaign. So they've resorted to straight-out lying to us. The Harvard Food Pyramid (created with actual nutrition in mind, using the best evidence available to us at present) does suggest using dairy as a calcium supply. But there is conflicting evidence; some studies suggest that dairy causes allergies, and yet others suggest that calcium uptake in milk is not very good.
The jury is still out in regards to dairy products, and they may very well turn out to be good for us. But the fact remains that they've simply jumped the gun, caving to a large industrial interest rather than actually caring about the health of its citizens. I'm sure that the USDA has plenty of research pointing to dairy being good for you, but do they simply ignore the research that suggests otherwise? Anyway, I recommend the Harvard food pyramid. It's just pathetic that we have to resort to a private university for reliable and unbiased information.
# posted by Stuart @ 11:05 PM 
