New 2010 Dietary Guidelines Released Focus on Obesity

In a report from the Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, our government officials firmly focused on obesity. The report was released on June 15 by the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The report essentially swarms over obesity among American children at every turn. The USDA and the US Dept of Health and Human Services have seemingly started a new campaign in order to try to sway the eating choices of American children to a more healthy diet consisting of vegetables, whole grains and fruits, along with lean meats.

The new nutritional guidelines strongly recommend that Americans decrease their sugar and salt intake, as well as sugar-based beverages such as sodas. The nutritional guidelines go on to advise Americans, especially children, to push their activity levels to a whopping hour a day for children and over two hours a week of activity for every adult.

The Nutritional Dietary Guidelines have been published every five years since 1980, and was first initiated by Congress. The present 2010 edition by the USDA and US Health and Human Services Department has been in the works for over the past two years. The HHS and the USDA are supposedly going to release the final report by the end of the year and, in the meantime, they hope to gather comments from the American public on their dietary recommendations and, thereby, take public commentary into consideration when finalizing the guidelines.

I read the report and tried to stay neutral on the content until I had finished the advisory committee's full recommendations. However, by the end of the report, I was conflicted as to how many Americans would accept these guidelines with open arms. First, let me start by saying I live in a small rural community in Western Kentucky hit hard by the recession and the economic downtrend, and most Americans, including myself, feel as though our government is completely unaware of how the majority of the middle class have been affected to date. These dietary guidelines, in my opinion, come at a very bad time, especially considering most Americans, including myself, would hasten to ask who is going to pay for all these dietary changes, and with what.

Being in the medical profession for as long as I have, I can honestly say that almost 50 percent of our community is overweight, and more than 25 percent of that figure is classified as morbidly obese. Our diverse community, including our medical facilities, firmly promotes a healthy diet and lifestyle, which is, unfortunately, a constant battle, considering the recession has left a lot of our community struggling with depression and stress conditions.

I am certain the USDA and the HHS had good intentions when they first started, and I would agree Americans use too much salt, as well as consume far too much sugar, but our government officials have to accept that, while dietary attention has and will always be worthy of attention, the real problems with America lie with jobs, wages and our present economic state.

Western Kentucky is not unlike many other areas around the U.S. that is full of hard working Americans that may all but have given up on ever having any daily pleasures. So, by taking away their French fries and burgers, what is there to gain? Americans can hardly afford their groceries, and now our government is going to try to tell them what to purchase and what to eat. Exactly what country are we living in again?

Many people are still out of work in our community due to layoffs and companies closing because of the recession. Most of our community had high hopes that the new year and tax season would give them some kind of relief from what they were dealing with at the end of last year. And yet, it is now June, and the majority of my patients have lost everything from their jobs to their savings. Fleetwood left Marshall County, Kentucky, at the beginning of 2009 and, from there, the whole area seemed to take a downward spiral into the recession.

I have struggled with my weight for many years, and I can tell you that, while recommending a healthier diet is one thing, telling someone to increase their activity levels when they can barely afford to pay their living expenses is a travesty. I agree that eating healthy is important, and I would hasten to say that most Americans already know that, and that is not anything new. But, pushing recommendations to restrict dietary changes on Americans is a whole different matter. We can address dietary changes in America after we fix the the real problems Americans face, such as unemployment and the cost of living in general.

I'm sure that I speak for a vast amount of Americans when I say, "Stop trying to convince me America is okay and there is light at the end of the tunnel, when all I can see is wasteland with American casualties."

References for this article include:
www.cnpp.usda.gov/dietaryguidelines.htm

www.reuters.com/article/idUSN159599220100615

beforeitsnews.com/news/79/217/2010_Dietary_Guidelines_Released_-_Too_little_too_late_for_the_diabetes_epidemic.html