Dear Editor:
USDA’s new MyPlate dietary logo illustrates graphically the shrinking role
of meat and dairy products in our national diet. It replaces meat with a
tofu loaf, and shunts dairy off the plate.
The new logo provides a fitting conclusion to a 30-year record of the
Dietary Guidelines recommending replacement of animal products and other
fatty foods in our diet with vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains
(see www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines).
The recommendations reflect widespread concern with the growing epidemic of
obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and other killer diseases.
There is an historic reason why health authorities have not taken a stronger
stand against meat and dairy, as they did with tobacco products three
decades ago.
In 1977, the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs published
Dietary Goals for the United States, recommending reduced meat consumption.
The meat industry forced the Committee to destroy all copies of the report
and to remove the offending recommendation from a new version. It then
abolished the Committee, voted Chairman George McGovern out of office, and
taught government bureaucrats never to challenge meat consumption again.
(Food Politics by Marion Nestle, 2007).
Sincerely,
Elmer Leighton