A brief history of nutrition recommendations

[wtg]

I don't remember some of the recent ones at all.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/13/462821161/illustrating-diet-advice-is-hard-heres-how-usda-has-tried-to-do-it?utm_placement=newsletter&user_id=66c4c06e5d78644b3aab4472

Have to admit I've often ignored these types of guidelines. Full fat milk products have been part of my diet for my entire life. Remember when eggs were considered to be bad for you? I thought it was crazy and ate them anyway.

[Daniel]

Yes. They were said to have cholesterol and it would be the death of you. Now they're a standard bearer for what people need to buy at the grocery store vs how much they cost.

[jon-nyc]

I’ve always found it weird all the quibbling about the relative benefits and harms of various natural foods. This seems like rearranging deck chairs on the titanic compared to all the pure junk in the standard American diet and the sedentariness of the average American lifestyle.

It’s like arguing about seed oils while ignoring the fact that you smoke 2 packs of Marlboro reds a day.

[Mik]

Yep. Eat whole foods, perimeter shop, keep calories reasonable, avoid processed foods, an excess of sodium and sugar. It's really not that hard.

[Steve Miller]

The only problem I have with govt food guidelines is that they’re used to develop things like school lunch programs. Hilarity ensues!

What they dont use them for is selecting what you can buy with food stamps. There is no way soda pop should be on that list.

[Mik]

Soda, Cheetos, sugary cereals, the list of what should not be eligible is endless. I suspect the food and grocer companies have cried about how hard it would be to establish and maintain that.

[jon-nyc]

Yeah and oddly there’s a contingent who believes we shouldn’t have a paternalistic attitude toward the poor even though those same people back paternalistic policies for citizenry as a whole.