by Marion Nestle
Mar 1 2008

USDA asks for help with its science homework

The USDA is gearing up to appoint a committee to re-do the next round of Dietary Guidelines for Americans in 2010. It looks like there will be a big push to make them “science-based” again (as if they weren’t always science-based). USDA is asking for help with the science and is recruiting volunteers to become “Nutrition Evidence Library Abstractors” who will read and write abstracts of scientific studies as the basis of the committee’s work.   Sound like fun?  Could be.

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  • Daniel Ithaca,NY

    This sounds like a great opportunity! ( to get away from the “S.A.D., the Standard American Diet.” )
    Prevention is the best health care!

  • “As if they weren’t always science-based” – were they?

  • Daniel Ithaca,NY

    If you count the self-funded studies of dairy consumption, by the industry! That’s science isn’t it?

    Milk and meat are obviously not essential and use of these items can bring about some major health problems. So why do the dietary guidelines promote them? Are the recommendations to consume these high levels of meat and dairy everyday, (without regard for allergy, intolerance, religious, humanitarian, or other concern) there for health reasons, promoting eating habits that help the human body resist cancer, diabetes, obesity, cardio-vascular disease, osteoporosis, and other diseases/conditions, or are the recommendations made thus far due to other factors?

  • What is so essential about corn, soy, and wheat? Nutritionally they aren’t essential at all. Humans can thrive very nicely without them or with very small amounts.

    Ahhh, but corn, soy, and wheat are “essential” commodities to the industrial food complex. The huge amount of corn, soy, and wheat in the SAD promotes the development of cancer, diabetes, obesity, CVD, osteoporosis, and other diseases/conditions.