"Deconstructing" Dietary Advice

I was unaware that every five years the Guidelines have to be examined. It seems weird to create a committee if nothing is particularly wrong with something, of course they will feel pressured to make some sort of change. It appears to me that sound, good, dietary advice really has not changed all that much in years: eat lots of whole grain, fruits and vegetables and less meat that is high in fat. But committee's feel the need to tinker and mold guidelines based on relationships with industry. No wonder everyone in the public is so confused about dietary advice. I would say, if it ain't broke don't fix it. The part about the tiers was really interesting. Its fascinating how much psychology goes into these guidelines and how important semantics can be. Her deconstructions of the 2000 guidelines is fascinating. It's so complex, how can policies and guidelines possibly please everyone? I wonder how I would interpret the 2000 Dietary Guideline tiers if I had never heard of them or discussed them in class. Now I am bias after reading this article. I suppose it is only natural to think that A is most important out of A, B and C. A is the best grade on a test or the best quality in food industry so it only seems fit that it is the most crucial of the recommendations. It is unrealistic though for readers to think that they can only exercise and lose weight and be healthy. I also find it fascinating how the industry realizes that talking about limiting certain nutrients is ok for their companies; they probably realize that many people won't understand or take the time to read labels thoroughly and they take advantage of that fact. The section on dairy was interesting, especially in the light of so many discussions about WIC and how much milk they provide people. Its amazing how much history and industry can affect our perception of the health of a beverage (milk) that may not even be that crucial after a certain age, given the huge proportion of humans that cannot digest lactose into adulthood. Lastly, I understand that it is important to distinguish between different kinds of fat for example, but how is one to get all that differentiation on one easily understandable diagram for the general public? Quite the connundrum.