The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans committee is accepting public comments until the end of the day today, May 8th. I will put the link to the comment form at the end of this post. Here is what I’m sending:
Americans are eating 30% more calories than we did 30 years ago when our government and health agencies first recommended that we cut down on fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol and eat more carbohydrates, especially fruits, vegetables, and grains. A recent analysis of the government’s own data on food consumption reveals that we did just what we were told to do. Fat consumption is down by 25%; carbs are up by 30%, and saturated fat is down by 20%. The percentage of overweight adults has increased from 42% to 66% since 1971. (http://www.nutritionjrnl.com/article/S0899-9007%2815%2900077-5/fulltext). These dramatic shifts in the macronutrient composition of the American diet coincided with the rise in our multiple epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes, the predictable outcome of increased carbohydrate consumption and reduced intake of natural fats. (Carbs stimulate the release of insulin, the fat storage hormone; insulin increases hunger.)
A low-carbohydrate/high fat diet resets the body’s metabolism to burn fat for energy instead of burning sugar and storing fat, a state called ketosis. Following such a plan for three weeks will allow you to be satisfied on one meal a day with no hunger or deprivation. Think of the implications! How much time and energy would be saved if we prepared food once a day rather than three, four, or more times? How much less waste and garbage would we make? How much less fuel would we use for shopping and cooking and how much less would be needed for growing, transporting, processing, and packaging our food? How much less fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, and greenhouse gas would go into the environment? How much less water would be needed and how many fewer rain forests and grasslands would be destroyed to make room for more and more mono-crops to feed our burgeoning population and obese bodies? If a ketogenic, one-meal-a-day diet catches on, it would have the same effect as cutting the world’s current number of mouths to be fed from 7 billion to 2½ billion. It could save, not just the lives and health of millions of people, but our very planet.
You will have only 20 minutes to finish your comment, so have it written out and ready to paste. You also need a short summary. The link is here: http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2015/comments/writeComments.aspx
