2019 March Board Book

Blaming the "weakness" of those most affected has become the norm in public health circles: The assumption is that people just are just not following the good advice they have been given. In fact, we have had bad policy, based on bad science. Recent investigations have uncovered the story of nutrition studies that were ignored, poorly designed or executed, subject to bias, or even manipulated to achieve the desired result. (A multi-country study which underpinned most nutrition policy for decades pointed to the health advantage of the diet of the people of Crete — but the food data was collected during the fasting period of Orthodox Lent). The result has been the evidence-free policy making which has been the hallmark of U.S. nutrition policy for nearly half a century. A growing chorus of prominent scientists and doctors are demanding an evidence- based overhaul of America’s nutrition policy. Advances in epigenetics, microbiome research, neuroscience, endocrinology, psychiatry and other fields have shed new light on the powerful role our diets have on the development of specific chronic diseases. The low-fat/high-carb diet is implicated in many of the major metabolic and inflammatory diseases of our time: obesity; cardiovascular disease; diabetes; Alzheimer’s; fatty liver disease; autoimmune conditions; some cancers; depression; and ADHD. But the forces acting to maintain the status quo are very powerful. This is true for any entrenched paradigm with many vested interests, in this case the food and beverage industry, pharma industry, influential NGOs and many pockets of academia. The same tactics used to confuse the public and policy makers in order to stall progress on smoking regulations and action on climate change are being executed today in nutrition policy.