In a message dated 7/28/02 11:07:56 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:

>A suit against the USDA over the Food
>Pyramid is something else, since it is an official
>recommendation, from a source that citizens are supposed to be
>able to trust.  I think a case can be made that the USDA should
>not be in the business of promulgating official dietary
>recommendations of any kind, especially when its recommendations
>have not had the benefit of long-term study and testing.  But I
>don't think that would be enough to win a suit.

Gary Taubes published a piece in Science last year detailing some of the
politics behind the low fat recommendations -- although the people seemed
genuinely well intentioned, they refused warnings that they were about to
launch an unprecedented experiment on the American people; they consciously
drew up their recommendations before the so-called definitive paper
establishing the science behind the recommendations was written. It was never
written. The job fell to the Surgeon Generals office to write the treatise --
back in the late 70s I think it was. In 1998, after 4 project managers came
and went, and still no scientific treatise (science was breaking their way),
the project was abandoned with little fanfare. Many of the people who ended
up writing up the recommendation were not even scientists -- they were
politicos who felt they had to tell the American people something to deal
with the heart disease epidemic. I have a copy of the article -- if anyone
wants it let me know. I also have a link to Taubes most recent piece in the
NY Times Mag called "What if all a Big Fat Lie".
Also a piece in Wall Street Journal said that some food manufacturers were
getting legal teams and arguments ready as they feared law suits -- one
planned argument was that they were just complying with USDA's guidelines.

Namaste, Liz
<A HREF="http://www.csun.edu/~ecm59556/Healthycarb/index.html">
http://www.csun.edu/~ecm59556/Healthycarb/index.html</A>