Follow USDA guidelines for dairy consumption at your own risk

Skim scam

Protein. Vegetables. Fruits. Grains. Dairy.

That’s what the USDA recommends you eat. Aren’t you glad there’s a government agency to tell you this? Otherwise, how would you ever know?

Actually, if the USDA dietary recommendations really did began and end with those five words, that would be just fine. It would communicate the importance of following a balanced diet. Then add just three simple instructions:

1) Choose high quality whole foods instead of processed foods
2) Avoid added sugars
3) Don’t overeat

There you go. That’s about all the information you need for a healthy diet.

But you know how it is — USDA officials have to justify their agency’s existence (not to mention a gigantic yearly budget). So beyond informing us to eat from those five food groups, they also have to go into great detail about each group.

And that’s when things start to get stupid…

She said, he said

I found some debate thrown in to a couple of Los Angeles Times articles about the new USDA MyPlate icon.

In the first article there’s this comment from Ann Marie Krautheim, senior vice president of nutrition affairs for the National Dairy Council: “We really like the way dairy kind of stands out. It draws the eye, and it’ll be a good reminder that a serving of dairy should accompany every meal.”

Of course, she’s talking about the small circle on the MyPlate icon that indicates dairy. You can see the entire plate and dairy circle icon at choosemyplate.gov.

The next day’s edition of the Times included this quote from Walter Willett, M.D., chairman of the department of nutrition at Harvard University. He’s also talking about the “dairy” circle: “It implies there should be a glass of milk or some dairy at every meal and there’s no evidence to show that that’s beneficial.”

Wow — I’m glad SOMEone said it! And I’m very surprised it actually got published. Thank you, Dr. Willett, and nice work, LA Times.

The slimming myth

Aside from the absurd idea of drinking milk with every meal (does any adult actually do that?), the USDA recommends that we all stick to fat-free or 1% dairy products.

No surprise there. I think we can depend on USDA officials to hang on to their ridiculous denial of dietary fats for many years to come. (All with the blessing of the dairy industry, of course. They skim off the fat and use it in other products, so they actually end up making more milk-bucks per gallon with skim than with whole milk.)

But as Dr. Spreen has pointed out, calcium, vitamin A, and other key nutrients are better absorbed by your body when they’re consumed with fat. Take away the fat and it’s really no different than removing nutrition.

As for the “slimming” benefit of skim — that’s a complete myth.

Yes, whole milk has more calories than skim. But when Harvard researchers looked at four years of data on nearly 13,000 adolescents and teens, weight gain was linked to regular intake of skim milk and 1%, but NOT to dairy fat intake.

How could that be? Most likely it’s due to better absorption of calcium, which is a known helper in weight-loss efforts.

Skim is a scam. But you’ll never hear that from the USDA — or see it in one of their colorful diagrams.

Sources:
“USDA to reshape how we see dietary nutrition” Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times, 6/1/11, latimes.com
“Farewell, food pyramid — USDA is now serving up nutritional advice on My Plate” Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times, 6/2/11, latimes.com