From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Tue May 13 2003 - 02:10:45 MDT
There has been discussion recently about Nutritional Scientists' failure in
developing the Four Food Groups and The Food Pyramid. I have been too busy
to dig this up, but here is a summary of a successful lawsuit from last year
that proved that the meat and dairy industry manipulated these
recommendations and that they were not scientifically based.
Dietary Guidelines for Americans
from <http://www.apma.net/legal-lawsuits.htm>
AAHF joined a successful lawsuit by the Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine which was designed to persuade the US Department of Health and
Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture to revise the Dietary
Guidelines for Americans. PCRM worked to push these federal departments to
acknowledge the prevalence of lactase nonpersistence in African Americans,
Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans and therefore make
dairy products optional, rather that required, in the Guidelines and in
federal food programs. The Committee also believed that the Guidelines need
to recognize the disproportionate toll prostate cancer, diabetes, and
hypertension exact among people of color and to encourage the healthiest
possible diets to help reduce this toll. The Committee successfully
recommended that soy-based beverages with added calcium be included in what
had been called the "dairy group;" and recommended that the Guidelines be
revised to include a fully-developed section promoting vegetarian and vegan
diets. The Committee also asked that meat and dairy products be listed as
optional food sources, rather than recommended or required. The Dietary
Guidelines 2000 Committee did declare that plant foods - vegetables, fruits,
grains and legumes-are the foundation of a healthy diet, but did not make
particular reference to vegetarian or vegan eating patterns, and failed to
acknowledge the benefits thereof in preventing chronic diseases. The
Guideline Committee's report and recommendations can be found at
www.ars.usda.gov/dgac. Click here to link to the Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine' web site and press release on this subject.
http://www.pcrm.org/news/health001002.html
This last link gives some legal information about how the dairy and meat
industries secretly financed these studies and how the USDA unlawfully hid
their involvement.
from <http://www.pcrm.org/news/health001002.html>
Court Rules Against USDA's Secrecy and Failure to Disclose Conflict of
Interest in Setting Nutrition Policies
Washington, D.C.—The U.S. Department of Agriculture violated federal law by
keeping secret certain documents used in setting federal nutrition policies
and by hiding financial conflicts of interest among members of a diet
advisory committee, U.S. District Judge James Robertson said in a ruling
made public today.
The ruling is a major victory for the Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine (PCRM), a Washington, D.C.-based research and advocacy group that
had lodged the lawsuit in Federal District Court for the District of
Columbia on December 15, 1999.
PCRM had argued that at least six of the 11 members of the Dietary
Guidelines Advisory Committee, which formulates the Dietary Guidelines for
Americans, had financial ties to the meat, dairy, or egg industries that may
have made it more likely that unhealthy foods would remain in the
government's diet plan. PCRM's suit also charged that the government had
undercut the public's ability to participate in and understand the
Committee's activities. The Dietary Guidelines provide nutrition advice for
all Americans and form the basis for all federal food programs, including
the School Lunch Program.
While USDA had provided information showing financial conflicts of interest
for six committee members, Judge Robertson faulted the Department for
refusing to provide details on an additional conflict of interest involving
a payment of more than $10,000 for one member. This additional conflict has
not yet been revealed, but PCRM anticipates its disclosure within a matter
of days.
"Having advisors tied to the meat or dairy industries is as inappropriate as
letting tobacco companies decide our standards for air quality," said PCRM
president Neal D. Barnard, M.D.
Mindy Kursban, PCRM's attorney, said, "We hope that this Court's strong
ruling against the government will make the USDA think twice before
appointing Committee members with inappropriate industry ties."
Prior to initiating the lawsuit, PCRM's efforts to change federal diet
guidelines had won the support of the NAACP, former Surgeon General Joycelyn
Elders, Martin Luther King, III, Muhammad Ali, and many others who objected
to the overpromotion of meat and dairy products given the prevalence of
lactose intolerance and diet-related diseases, such as heart disease,
diabetes, and hypertension, among racial minorities.
The doctors' group scored a partial victory in February, when the advisory
committee accepted non-dairy foods, such as soymilk, as acceptable
alternatives to dairy products.
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, IAM, GSEC, IBMCP <www.HarveyNewstrom.com> <www.Newstaff.com>
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