When the dietary guidelines don't fit your agenda, get litigious

When I saw the headline 'PCRM sues federal agencies over dietary guidelines', I chuckled, since I consider the dietary guidelines a crock, and really, what place does the government have telling us what to eat? And then I read the story, and it just about made my blood boil.

Their problem isn't that the government is telling us what to eat, their problem is the government isn't promoting a vegan diet.

"'Yet Defendants intentionally use inconsistent language, ambiguous phrases, and biochemical terminology to avoid providing clear dietary information and guidance for the general public regarding the health benefits of reducing consumption of meat and dairy products. This is due to Defendants’ conflicts of interest.'...

Asked if the PCRM's lawsuit were less a device to correct any problems with the dietary guidelines and more a tool to promote the group's vegan diet, Barnard said the question itself was focused on the wrong issue. He said the evidence is overwhelming that plant-based diets are more healthful and not reporting such information, in clear and unambiguous terms, in the dietary guidelines is misguided."

Of course the USDA has a conflict of interest, and so does PCRM! In other words, yes, they are attempting to use the dietary guidelines to promote their vegan diet. The evidence is NOT overwhelming that a plant-based diet is more healthful, in fact, if you've read Good Calories, Bad Calories, you'll know that it's the freaking OPPOSITE. It's like Orwell's 1984, War is Peace, Slavery is Freedom, and bloody hell if Ignorance isn't Strength.

It's not that I have a problem with people eating a vegan diet. Quite the contrary, if you want to wreck your health, that's your prerogative. It's a free country, eat whatever you want. In fact, if you want to go to McDonald's every day and eat 5000 calories like Spurlock did and gain a ton of weight, then by god, that's your god given right. If you want to eat tofu and sit in a drum circle all night, that too is your god given right as an American. If I want to eat venison I killed myself every night, it's none of your damned business and if you don't like it, you need to STFU. We do not need a nanny state telling us we need to eat one way or the other. THAT is what is wrong with the food guidelines.

What we need, is someone telling us the TRUTH about what medical research finds out, and then we as THE PEOPLE get to decide whether we want to act on that knowledge or not. Anything else is not worthy of a free people.

My mum-in-law just this morning was saying that as soon as more people start eating low carb and paleo that these militant vegans will petition the government to add a tax to everything that has animal fat in it, on the premise that it's bad for us like cigarettes. And indeed, on many forums I have seen the consumption of animal fat compared to smoking cigarettes, as if the two have anything in common. Unfortunately, my mum-in-law may be right.

Californian Mom Sues Nutella

It doesn't take a genius to know that Nutella is not really a healthy food for you. But not because of the saturated fat content, but rather because the first ingredient is sugar. Either Athena Hohenberg is an idiot or she's after money. I'm leaning toward the latter personally. Why should she waste the courts time and money by suing, can't she use her brain and read a label? Maybe she hasn't had enough fat in her diet and her synapses are having problems communicating with each other.

If Athena wants healthy children she should be feeding them real, unprocessed foods like eggs and sausage for breakfast. But I digress. The real problem here, is that Athena Hohenberg has been told her whole life that saturated fat is bad for you. It's not, but sugar is, and at least sugar is included in the indictment. The great thing about living in a free country is that one should be able to eat whatever they want, whether it's good for them or not. The problem is, what is good for you? Now we're back to the lies.

So, when is she going to sue the breakfast cereal manufacturers? That's what I want to know.

Breakfast cereal manufacturers are no different than Nutella, advertising that their sugary, wheat infused mixture is a good thing to feed your kids in the morning. In my opinion, cereal is probably one of the worst thing you could feed your kids. Spreading Nutella on a piece of whole wheat bread would probably be about the same. Oh, except that cereal is "low in fat". I guess that makes it okay {/snark}. Even the ones touting to be "healthy", like Raisin Bran and Special K are hardly good for you, never mind the carbohydrate content. I've read the labels on those and they both have High Fructose Corn Syrup in them. Most of the breakfast cereal you'll find is also made with enriched flour, which is white flour with vitamins added back into it. When that hits your blood stream it's the same as if you'd eaten sugar.

*sigh*