Einstein Researchers: Do National Dietary Guidelines Do More Harm Than Good?

Right and wrong.

Right:

"For nearly three decades, Americans have become accustomed to hearing about the latest dietary guidelines, which are required by federal regulation to be revised and reissued at five-year intervals. Mid-way to the drafting of the 2010 guidelines, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University raise questions about the benefits of federal dietary guidelines, and urge that guideline writers be guided by explicit standards of evidence to ensure the public good.

Wrong:

"'Any directions should be based on the very highest standards of scientific evidence. After all, we expect that much from pharmaceutical companies before they bring a new drug to market.'"

Clearly, Big Pharma is exempt from "the very highest standards of scientific evidence.

But that is not the point.

The Guidelines are useless because all we really know about health and food is Calories.

Everything else fluctuates much more and is certainly unpredictable.

As a foundation, to do the most good for the most people, if a federal policy is to be implemented (and this is a big if), it should focus on what will work, not what is speculation.

And the one thing that will work is caloric intake control.

Exercise, as a means to achieving a healthy weight, is an almost impossible approach and needs to be relegated to its very distant second place.

The best posture for the Feds is to stop all recommendations for specific foods and ratios, stop paying for rescue pills and procedures, start educating people about Calorie accounting and making people accountable for their Calorie choices.