Manufacturers and USDA have conspired for decades to make us fat.   

US Food Pyramid

Imagine a foreign power planning to infiltrate our government and conspiring to alter our food recommendations to encourage our citizens to eat unhealthy food choices.  The spies change our food guidelines to make us sick and weak, so we can no longer fight back or produce products to compete in the global market.  Now, we can no longer win wars, and our country has begun to decline.  I know this sounds like a ridiculous conspiracy theory.  I came up with it after reading an article on Natural News on the conspiracy to resist vegan mayonnaise by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)[1].  

For as long as I have been alive, the USDA and FDA have provided food and drug recommendations to the US public.  One such is the recommendation that we eat a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet to remain healthy and prevent chronic illnesses like diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, and heart disease.   According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 29 million of us currently have type 2 diabetes, and heart disease is skyrocketing despite following this advice.  Even though many of us have followed this advice, we are fatter and more unhealthy than ever.   They may not be truly conspiring to make us fat, but they sure the heck are not helping.  

We absolutely need to make changes, and the problem is more than what we eat.  The problem is deeper than just a dietary choice.  The problem is a combination of the lobbying and staffing of our government agencies.  Many lobbyists go from industry jobs to government jobs to lobbying lawmakers.  This job-hopping creates a conflict of interest that we fail to acknowledge or just ignore.  I know you are questioning what the problem is.  The problem is industry and lobbyists have a financial incentive to sell more products even if the product is terrible for you.  For decades, industry, lobbyists, lawmakers, and bureaucrats have ignored the scientific evidence that the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet does not work.  

Trans Fats

In the 1980s, I remember the dietary guidelines were explicitly designed to reduce heart disease.  These guidelines were the same ones I was taught in the 1990s in medical school.  They were based on epidemiological studies that were from the 1940s-60s.  The suggestion from these studies was straightforward: reduce your saturated fat from dairy and red meat.  It seemed so straightforward and clean-cut, but the problem was the research was tainted.  As we eventually found out, the increase in heart disease was due, at least in part, to trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils.  Why did it take so long to determine this link?  The USDA and the scientific community were vested in keeping the blinders on and continuing the status quo.  These blinders kept the researchers from seeing that which was obvious: saturated fat was not the problem.  

So, why are the guidelines making us fatter?  The problem is the high-carbohydrate diet.  For years, the guidelines recommended a higher carbohydrate diet without suggesting a low-sugar diet.  Higher carbohydrate diets high in processed ingredients lead to the rapid absorption of sugars after digestion.  This change leads to a spike in insulin which not only leads to an increase in fat deposition, it also increases your appetite.  These changes create a cycle that ballons your waistline.  As I said, they may not be truly conspiring to make us fat, but they sure the heck were not helping.  The unhealthy suggestions are likely because of incompetence and laziness, not a conspiracy.  The problem is that these suggestions and guidelines have harmed millions of Americans over the last 50 years.  Unfortunately, it continues today.  

What’s next?  Unfortunately, experts continue to push these guidelines today.  Dieticians, medical providers, and researchers continue to perform flawed research.  You have to look no further than two areas of research: fat intake and the move more, eat less research.  Much of this research is encouraged by both industry and government agencies.  Researchers refuse to accept the facts, and that study after study continues to show that eating less and exercising more and the low-fat diet does not work for weight loss or maintenance. 

Before you send the guys with the huggy jackets and butterfly nets, I do not think this is an intentional conspiracy.  I present this as the only food for thought.  The USDA and FDA have proven themselves unreliable.  The agencies are individuals with a bias based on prior experiences and lobbying from outside the industry.  Take any suggestions with skepticism and do your research.