Volume One               Article Three           October 1998

DIETARY GOALS FOR THE UNITED STATES

This week we want to talk about the Government study and publication briefly mentioned in Article One involving the American diet and degenerative diseases entitled, Dietary Goals For The United States prepared by the staff of the Select Committee On Nutrition And Human Needs United States Senate, December 1977. This study is most important because it show us that at one time our government was concerned about the health of the American people and took action steps to investigate the American diet and lifestyle to determine its relationship with the health of the American people and particularly degenerative diseases. What happened to the outcome of these investigations? We were not told about them....ya know why? When the first report was released by the U.S. Government Printing Office all hell broke loose! The Medical profession came down like a ton of bricks on Washington screaming, "You can’t print this!!" Why?......because it made Medical care take a back seat and concurred that a bad diet was the contributing factors to America’s declining health and degenerative diseases. No way the Medical hierarchy was going to lose out on billions of profit by the American people upgrading their diet and lifestyle.

The dairy industry also played havoc with the Government study because it stated that the American people consume to much fat and dairy was one of the sources of this fat so back off dairy consumption. The dairy industry did not like that and with two slaps in the face the Government revised the Senate report to a Second Edition making the First Edition obsolete. It appears that now even the Second Edition (98-364) is obsolete as I have not been able to even get an acknowledgment from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. It is suppose to be for sale by this office but try and get it! Some of you might want to try and get this report. Request it by name and number and insist on a reply!

So the "Select Committee On Nutrition And Human Needs" prepared this study for the American people, I would presume. It was chaired by George McGovern and the committee included such Senators as Edward Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Patrick Leahy, Edward Zorinsky, Charles Percy, Robert Dole and Richard Schweiker. The first paragraph in the Supplemental Foreword by Senator Dole stated, "I wish to underscore the importance of the initiative taken by the Select Committee in the field of human nutrition. More than ever I am coming to believe that preventive medicine in the long run will prove to be the cheapest, most desirable route to good health, maximum productivity and lowered medical and health costs for the consumer and the taxpayer." quote and unquote.

George McGovern made this opening statement on the publication of Dietary Goals For The United States, Quote "Good morning. The purpose of this press conference is to release a Nutrition Committee study entitled Dietary Goals for the United States, and to explain why we need such a report. I should note from the outset that this is the first comprehensive statement by any branch of the Federal Government on risk factors in the American diet. The simple fact is that our diets have changed radically within the last 50 years, with great and often very harmful effects on our health. These dietary changes represent as great a threat to public health as smoking. Too much fat, too much sugar or salt, can be and are linked directly to heart disease, cancer, obesity, and stroke, among other killer diseases. In all six of the ten leading causes of death in the United States have been linked to our diet. Those of us within Government have an obligation to acknowledge this. The public wants some guidance, wants to know the truth, and hopefully today we can lay the cornerstone for the building of better health for all Americans, through better nutrition. Last year every man, woman and child in the United States consumed 125 pounds of fat, and 100 pounds of sugar. etc., etc.." unquote.

The following statement was made by Dr. D. M. Hegsted, Professor of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass., "The diet of the American people has become increasingly rich--rich in meat, other sources of saturated fat and cholesterol, and in sugar. There will be people who will contest this statement. It has been pointed out repeatedly that total sugar use has remained relatively constant for a number of years. We would emphasize, however, that our total food consumption has fallen even though we still eat too much relative to our needs. Thus, the proportion of the total diet contributed by fatty and cholesterol-rich foods and by refined foods has risen. We might be better able to tolerate this diet if we were much more active physically, but we are a sedentary people. It should be emphasized that this diet which affluent people generally consume is everywhere associated with a similar disease pattern--high rates of ischemic heart disease, certain forms of cancer, diabetes, and obesity. These are the major causes of death and disability in the United States. These so-called degenerative diseases obviously become more important now that infectious diseases are, relatively speaking, under control. I wish to emphasize that these diseases undoubtedly have a complex etiology. It is not correct, strictly speaking, to say that they are caused by malnutrition but rather that an inappropriate diet contributes to their causation. Ischemic heart disease, cancer, diabetes and hypertension are the diseases that kill us. They are epidemic in our population. We cannot afford to temporize. We have an obligation to inform the public of the current state of knowledge and to assist the public in making the correct food choices. To do less is to avoid our responsibility." Unquote.

There are lots of exciting and interesting information in this publication but I would like to close this weeks Health Chat with a statement made by Dr. Philip Lee, Professor of Social Medicine and Director, Health Policy Program. University of California, San Francisco, California. The heart of Dr. Lee’s statement is what I believe bit the Medical Hierarchy in the backside and incited their wrath.

Portions of Dr. Lee’s statement ".........As a Nation we have come to believe that medicine and medical technology can solve our major health problems. The role of such important factors as diet in cancer and heart disease has long been obscured by the emphasis on the conquest of these diseases through the miracles of modern medicine. Treatment not prevention, has been the order of the day. The problems can never be solved merely by more and more medical care. The health of individuals and the health of the population is determined by a variety of biological (host), behavioral, sociocultural and environmental factors. None of these is more important than the food we eat. This simple fact and the importance of diet in health and disease is clearly recognized in Dietary Goals for the United States. It is important that Dietary Goals for the United States be made widely available because it is the only publication of its kind and it will be an invaluable resource for parents, school teachers, public health nurses, health educators, nutritionists, physicians and others who are involved in providing people with information about the food they eat." etc., Unquote.

Do you remember being taught these dietary ideals when you were in school? I don’t!

Hey! Take care......God Bless......and we’ll catch you next week on HEALTH CHATS!