When all else fails, eat! - Ashleigh Brilliant

Recent US history has reflected a growing concern with nutrition and its relationship to health. In February 1977, a select committee of the US Senate under the direction of Senator George McGovern published the first Dietary Goals for the United States. Its purpose, McGovern stated, was to point out that eating patterns of this century represent as critical a public health concern as any now before us."* Despite pressure from many special interest groups and lobbies, especially in the meat and dairy industry, the Committee's recommendations took a radical departure from the nutritional dogma that most Americans at that time had been raised on. We were urged to increase consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and decrease our consumption of red meat, saturated fats, sugar, salt, and foods high in cholesterol.

Yet, even though we now have more healthy choices and can talk about nutrition with some sophistication, we need not look far to see that Americans in general are unhealthy.

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* Dietary Goals for the United States, Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, US Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. (February 1977), p. v.

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