List,

Below is the op-ed piece we sent out to 1,500 daily newspapers this morning.
  Already, three papers have confirmed they will run the piece.  The first
to run this piece was the Philladelphia Daily News with a circulation of
162,000.

If it looks familiar, it's our news release rewritten to fit the style and
size requirements of an op-ed piece.

Dori Zook
Denver, CO



USDA Food Pyramid: A Pyramid Scheme?
By Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades

The US government has spent a quarter century and countless millions of
dollars promoting a low-fat, high-grain (carbohydrate) diet as the
optimal model for health and nutrition.  It is called the USDA Food
Guide Pyramid.  But given the lack of study behind this formula and the food
industry’s role in how it came to be, perhaps a better term would be the
USDA Pyramid Scheme.

In 1977, the US Senate’s McGovern Select Committee recommended Americans cut
their fat consumption and eat more grain.  This decision was based on
testimony from scientists, many of whom had strong ties to major US food
producers who stood to gain financially if Americans followed their experts’
advice.  Despite sound scientific evidence to the contrary, and
documentation of the food industry’s role in biased research, the committee
issued its mandate: Eat less fat and more grains.  This formula has been in
effect ever since, with the well known, well-promoted visual aid known as
the USDA Food Guide Pyramid found all around us.  All government agencies
are required by law to promote the Food Pyramid.

The results have been devastating.  American fat consumption is now at
its all-time low.  But over the last decade, obesity has increased by
30%, pediatric obesity has doubled and type II diabetes is up nearly
twelve-fold.  By cutting their fat intake and eating more grain,
Americans have only gotten fatter.

Three out of four people in America suffer hyperinsulinemia to one
degree or another. This means the body produces excess insulin in
response to high blood sugar.  Bread, rice, pasta and cereal, the
foundation of the USDA Food Pyramid, turn to sugar in the bloodstream.
Consistent excess insulin leads to obesity, type II diabetes, heart
disease and other weight-related illnesses.

Critics call the low-carb, high-protein diet a fad, but nothing could be
further from the truth.  For 2.7 million years, humans ate a meat-based diet
including little if any grain.  Evidence shows that obesity, diabetes, heart
disease and other weight-related illnesses did not occur until after the
Agricultural Revolution, at which time humans switched to a grain-based
diet.  These diseases are virtually non-existent among the world’s remaining
hunter-gatherer societies.

If anything is a fad, it is the USDA Food Pyramid.  Humans have not had time
to adapt to this radical, new way of eating and it is wreaking havoc on our
bodies.  Meat, fruits and vegetables are what humans were designed to eat –
not grains.  Reams of published research show both the benefits of meat and
the problems with grain.  But if Uncle Sam were to recommend we switch to a
meat-based diet, he’d be biting the hand that feeds him.  The food
industry’s number one customer is – no surprise – the federal government.

A significant recent example of industry influence can be found in the
2000 US Dietary Guidelines.  Citing ties between sugar and obesity, USDA
scientists recommended the Guidelines encourage Americans to “limit” their
sugar intake, calling the 1995 recommendation –“Choose a diet moderate in
sugar” – too vague.  Initially, the new recommendation was approved.  But
after major pressure from sugar producers and 30 US Senators, most of whom
represented sugar producing states, the USDA acquiesced and, two months
later, the word “limit” was changed back to “moderate”.

In 1999, FDA researchers cited 28 studies documenting the ill effects of
soy, including an increased risk of breast cancer in women, decreased brain
function in men and developmental abnormalities in infants.  Despite this
somber warning, the FDA went on to issue a health claim stating that soy
“may reduce the risk of heart disease.” This after a decade-long marketing
campaign by major soy producers.

We are especially concerned about the USDA’s upcoming test on popular
weight loss diets.  The January 11 public hearing on this test says it
all.  Despite the fact that researchers will be looking at the benefits of
both low-fat and low-carb diets, not one low-carb diet expert was invited to
speak at the hearing.  Uncle Sam’s bias is already showing and the study has
yet to begin.

In short, the food industry has been using the federal government to
push an unhealthy diet on the country and Americans are paying the
price.  It’s a war between profits and health, and 280 million Americans
seem to be outnumbered.


- # # # -


Drs. Michael R. and Mary Dan Eades, authors of the New York Times
bestseller “Protein Power” and “Protein Power Lifeplan,” are practicing
physicians and founders of The Colorado Center for Metabolic Medicine in
Boulder, CO.
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