It is true that the American public is deficient in certain essential vitamins and
minerals, as well as trace elements. Many people are concerned enough about
their health to take vitamins, but unfortunately, this will not have a substantial
impact on the wellness of our population. Today almost every medical problem
patients are faced with is the result of years of dietary excesses they have
consumed, not merely deficiencies.
The message people hear is that it is okay to continue with their present diet,
as long as they supplement with vitamin pills or other nutritional supplements.
This is a powerful lie, but it is attractive because it is what people in general
want to believe. However, you cannot achieve optimal wellness as long as
present-day dietary habits continue.
Powerful industrial forces driven by economics, not science, are trying to
convince us that it doesn't matter what we eat. Any amount of processed,
chemicalized, so-called ―food‖ will allegedly meet our needs as long as we take
vitamins, antacids, digestive aids, headache and allergy remedies, and other
drugs.
The animal food industry has promoted the use of its products by false
nutritional dogma for decades. We have heard this effective misinformation not
only from advertisements, but also in the classroom, where it is taught that
animal proteins, milk, and dairy foods are essential to good health.
This has occurred as the result of billions of dollars spent by these industries
to influence the information we receive. Prevailed upon by powerful lobbyists
wielding tremendous economic power, our government has made dietary
recommendations that have been at odds with nutritional science for decades.
Even with the USDA's latest food pyramid, which de-emphasizes dairy, meat,
poultry, and other high-fat foods, the power of the food industry was evident:
publication of this pyramid was held up for five years while these food
producers negotiated for and won a weaker stance against their products.
These industries financially support and therefore bias the majority of
nutritional research carried out by major universities and scientific institutions
in this country. For instance, over the last 50 years the largest financial
contributors to nutritional research done at Harvard have been the dairy, meat,
and sugar industries. Even the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, which
publishes the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, discloses on the inside front
page of the journal that it is supported by such companies as Coca Cola,
Borden, Inc., Nabisco, NutraSweet, and various drug companies.
The result is that establishment nutritional advice does little more than
reinforce the dietary errors people prefer to make. Much of the nutritional
information that is given to the public is misleading. Even food labeling is
deceptive. Food producers are permitted to use portion size or weight to
calculate fat information, which presents a lie to the unsuspecting consumer.
For example, is whole milk 4 percent fat? It does contain 4 grams of fat per 100
grams of milk, but since each 100 grams of milk contains 70 calories, and since
fat carries 9 calories per gram, whole milk actually gets 50 percent of its
calories (4 x 9/70) from fat. Even ―low-fat‖ dairy products still are high-fat
foods. The dairy industry always presents nutritional ―education‖ in
nutrient/weight terms to hide the fat content of its products.
The meat and fast food industry has even picked up on the dairy industry's
mathematical subterfuge. McDonald's ―91 percent fat-free hamburger‖ contains
45 percent of calories from fat.
In spite of the continual onslaught of misinformation, a powerful opposition,
and the desire of the majority to want to believe they can consume anything
without paying the price, honest nutritional information will eventually reach
more and more of the public. This is because we have become such a sickly
society that more people are looking for answers.
The facts are that if animal foods are included in the diet in significant
quantities, it is impossible to devise a diet consistent with the overwhelming
bulk of evidence about food and health in the scientific literature. Society and
individuals will pay the price in suffering due to chronic disease and increased
rates of premature death.
The diseases most prevalent in our society will never be prevented just by
taking vitamin or food supplements. The causes are multifactorial and most
significantly the result of eating the wrong type of food. The diseases of affluent
societies arc virtually unknown in societies of lesser economic strength, which
live on natural-food, plant-based diets. When the effects of plant foods are
compared to the detrimental effects of animal products, it becomes clear why
these ―backward‖ societies have superior health. It is not merely the effects of
fiber, vitamins, and minerals in the plant foods that are protective; it is plant
foods as a whole.
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