The Battle Over American Dietary Guidelines

This article was to examine how the US government uses dietary guidelines for Americans and how the guidelines were supposed to help us eat and stay healthy. Diet and chronic diseases are sometimes connected. For example, it is proven that nutrient deficiency disease like scurvy can be cured by consuming the lost nutrients. However, it is also shown that some nutrient exposure can cause chronic illness such as energy, fats, sodium dietary fiber, and food exposures, etc. making it difficult to set dietary guidelines. In addition to some nutrient causing chronic diseases, nondietary factors such as stress, lack of exercise, smoking and other environmental factors are linked to causing chronic illnesses (Slavin, 2012).

The past fifty years has seen a spike in the consumption of sugar, that number totaling a tripling increase. However, sugar is not the only risk factor here, alcohol and tobacco can also be attributed with the spike, albeit not as prevalent as sugar. The biggest question that Lustig et al. poses to its’ readers is this: “What aspects of the Western diet should be the focus of intervention”? (par. 3) The current USDA has been deemed “boogeymen” of diets, as well as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Lustig et al. all believe that our attention should be turned towards “added sugar”, which is a sweetener that has fructose in it. Perhaps the biggest controversy from the past fifty years has been none other than a severe culprit that experts know as high fructose corn syrup or HFCS.

The documentary “Fed Up” provides some important and disturbing details of the food industry. The 1977 heart disease and diet study known as the McGovern Report warned that the obesity rate was increasing rapidly due to American diets in fatty meats, saturated fats, cholesterol, and sugar. The food industry vehemently denied these claims, but the American people still demanded lower fat food products. The food manufacturers found that the fat removal made the food bland and unpalatable so to address this they replaced the fat content with sugar. Both the documentary and the Harvard Nutrition Source discuss the role sugar has in health conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. They both link the consumption of sugar as the causality for

The Medical and sports nutrition establishment are horrified by the concept of low carbohydrate and ketogenic diets. While studies are being released almost daily proving the superiority of low carb diets for fat loss, the medical establishment warns against trying them as the long term health risks are "unknown". Apparently it is a case of 'better the devil you know than the devil you don 't '.

She challenges the basic assumption of the work by Ian Leslie, in which he seemingly claims that because sugar is the true cause of health issues in Dr. Key’s findings that his work should be discredited. Pett correctly points out that dietary decisions are rarely so objectively one sided, and instead postulates that perhaps both sugar and saturated fats could produce similar effects.

Today, despite technological and scientific discoveries of the past century, we live in a country filled with mysterious sicknesses. While America continues to prosper in other ways, our health continues to decline. What has helped to cause this terrible battle? Sugar. Even though it may pack a great taste, sugar has captured and addicted us to it. Our addiction to sugar has negative consequences such as severe chronic disease and obesity. Americans need to reduce sugar consumption to prevent, cure, or limit problems of chronic disease, addiction, and obesity.

Overeating sugar is the culprit of a mounting number of obesity, heart diseases, and diabetes cases in America these days. Look around, you can see numerous amounts of fast food stores, also all the “amazingly fancy” advertisements hanging in front of them. But behind all of that crunchy, tasty and savory French fries and hamburgers in the stores, there is a deadly lie. Eating a healthy diet is getting more and more alarming, I know you are tired of people telling you to go for a healthy

In 1984, the U.S. Government officially recommended that Americans eat a low fat diet. The entire American population hopped on board. Food manufacturers cranked out low fat versions of everything. Nutrition Scientists started publishing studies that support no carb diets. High School lunches became terrible. And even the Media jumped on board. However, what happened in the next decades was an increase in American citizens that have diabetes, despite the numerous ads pertaining to bowflex and hydroxycut.

In an article written by Julie Corliss, medical writer at Harvard Health Publications, she addresses Americans unhealthy sugar intake, “Added sugars make up at least 10% of the calories the average American eats in a day. But about one in 10 people get a whopping one-quarter or more of their calories from added sugar” (Corliss). Sugar not only leads to weight gain, but also increases the chance of suffering from heart disease. Moving away from artificial and processed foods will help Americans lose weight and start towards a healthy lifestyle. If the body is consistently treated poorly, this will reflect in the mirror and on the scale.

Sugar is, and has always been, unavoidable; conversely, sugar has not always been toxic. Naturally abundant and technically enhanced, this substance has followed in the footsteps of tobacco and alcohol, becoming just as unhealthy and ultimately lethal. And, without the implementation of government

In order to make it clear, sugar without moderation is bad for which could lead to horrible health issues. This is not actually the truth because not all sugar is bad for a diet. We should be eating things which are better for us, but society does not like the representation of healthy eating. However, when people are presented with “healthy eating” they tend to see “work on this and that.” Society has gotten used to not caring about health issues and just accepts it.

Summary: This documentary showed how sugar is as addicting as cocaine. By 2050, one in three people will be diagnosed with type two diabetes, where in 1980, there was zero reported cases. Companies know this information and reduced the fat, but doubled the sugar in their product.

Researchers who are publishing in the Journalist of the American Medical Association’s Internal Medicine have found that Americans who consume the most sugar are twice as likely to die from a heart disease compared to those of us who limit our sugar intake to about 160 calories a day. That is about 10 teaspoons.’ (http://www.npr.org/2014/02/05/271873707/you-may-be-eating-more-sugar-than-you-realize-and-thats-bad) (citaat)

If there is one thing Americans know a lot about its diets. Everything from Weight watchers to Atkins and everything in between has been promoted on televisions, in bestselling books and now advertised all over social media. Each one claiming to be the answer to weight loss, lifelong health and even making claims of reversing disease. Unfortunately even with this inundation, Americans are larger than ever. It’s confusing. Who is right, who is wrong? What can be believed? What can the average person actually attain and stick to? The government even has a say in what people should be eating. The food pyramid and more recently MyPlate have been attempts to steer people towards health. Unfortunately, they have been steering people in the wrong direction. A low fat high carbohydrate diet has been promoted extensively for many years, but it has left Americans fatter than ever So what is the answer? It surprises some and frustrates others, but a high fat, moderate protein and low carbohydrate diet is the way to go. This way of eating is commonly referred to as the ketogenic diet or keto. The ketogenic way of eating is the best diet because it promotes safe, healthy weight management including appetite control, reduces inflammation and high blood sugars, and supports brain health.

The low-carbohydrate diet dates back to 1797, when Scottish surgeon John Roll successfully treated two diabetic Army officers with a low-carbohydrate diet, which made the low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet became the standard treatment for diabetic and obese patients throughout the 19th century (Morgan 10). Subsequently, there was a rise in demand for low-carbohydrate diet books in 1958, 1967, and 1972, by Dr. Richard Mackarness, Irwin Stillman, and Dr. Robert Atkins, consecutively, with the latter one received the most widespread popularity. All of these diets expressed a steady emphasis on a diet with high protein, high natural fat in replacement of the loss in carbohydrate intake.