Nestle's Not-So Quik

A nod to Regina Wiltshire for posting a link to Do Dietary Guidelines Explain The Obesity Epidemic?, a paper by Steven H. Woolf M.D., MPH and Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH. Now with all them thar fancy letters after their names, you'd expect some intelligent, heck even cutting-edge, insights into the current state of our muffin-tops and dunlaps.

And you would be disappointed. Instead, we get more of the same ol', same ol'. As Nestle calls it on her blog, "I summarize it like this: “eat less, move more, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and don’t eat too much junk food.” According to her, basic dietary guidelines haven't changed in 50 years or so, so they can't be the problem. She fails to realize, of course, that these guidelines DID represent a HUGE change from dietary recommendations and patterns before that. Anyone remember the famous restaurant "diet plate" of cottage cheese, hamburger patty and salad (with full-fat dressing)? I do, and I'm only 32 (my hometown was evidently waaay behind the times as far as diet fads go).

It astounds me when Atkins and other low-carb regimes are called fads, when their menu plans look pretty familiar to anyone who's ever read a pre-1980's cookbook. Agriculture, which changed our human diet around 10K years ago, was an enormous adjustment, one that many of us have not adapted to. The diet we evolved on and the diet we're told to follow now - for health and weight management - don't come close to resembling one another. But even post-ag diets, whole, natural "traditional" foods a la Weston Price, are eons ahead of the crap we've been fed since the low-fat fad took hold.

Anyway, this is what really struck me from this seminal work of mediocrity:

"Granted, dietary guidelines can be improved, but they are not the culprit in the obesity epidemic. The larger concerns are poverty and an environment that promotes overeating and inactivity."

I responded on Nestle's blog. I have nothing against the woman - she could have a huge, positive impact on the health and nutrition of our fat nations if she looked beyond her comfy paradigm. Hell, she hasn't even read Taubes yet. My response is re-posted below.

So it's our environment that promotes overeating? I'm sorry, but this is extremely shortsighted.

I followed the basic food pyramid for years, and was a lacto-ovo vegetarian for several of them. So why was I constantly sick with colds, flu's and allergies? Why was I overweight, and steadily gaining? More importantly - why couldn't I stop eating?

Because I couldn't stop. My diet was firmly rooted in organic, whole grain products (pastas, artisan breads etc) and low-fat dairy/soy products, with lots of veggies and fruits and some vegetable oils (canola, olive)for cooking or on salads. Breakfast, for example, might be a high-fibre multigrain cereal with low-fat vanilla soy milk and blueberries. I'd be starving an hour later. Eventually, I was hungry all the time, and dealing with intense cravings for starchy foods; so bad, in fact, that I either had to chew gum or leave the house after dinner to keep myself from eating a box of crackers (whole grain, of course) or bag of rice cakes.

I had constant inflammation, acne, and a distended abdomen. My nails broke, my hair split, and my digestive system was a mess. My moods were all over the place (usually down) and my energy was low. I managed to run a few miles a day, plus weight train - made no difference at all to my weight or appearance, or health.

Finally, I stopped eating grains and soy. All, and I mean all, of my health problems cleared up within a few months. I replaced the grains (and low-fat everything) with meat and animal fats. My gut was silent and functioning perfectly for the first time in years - no more constipation (or the opposite). My skin was soft, and acne-free. Nails and hair - healthy and strong. Allergies, even hayfever - gone. Best of all, my weight dropped, the bloating vanished, and my moods totally turned around - no more anxiety or depression. Energy went through the roof, and I finally started seeing results from my weight lifting!

My point? Dietary guidelines that assume "X" food is healthy while "Y" food is unhealthy don't take into account the vast differences between people, nor do they even begin to examine our evolutionary past and what foods and/or preparation methods served us well. There are healthy vegans, vegetarians, omnivores and carnivores out there. (I am not going to address political/ethical arguments here - they are invalid in this context) Why are we so determined to claim one way as "right" when it's clearly not so? Whose needs are we serving?

I reclaimed my health only when I looked outside of the mainstream recommendations and began to do my own research and experimentation. How many others would benefit from doing the same? Rather than trying to sway people to "do the right thing" (even though it's not helping), would it not make more sense to - gasp - reexamine and redefine our idea of "right"? (Or, maybe, chuck the concept altogether)