The Subject is Diet - The USDA is Half Right

Recently the USDA put out new guidelines on diet. And once again the agency is half right. It placed an emphasis on people eating less food, more fish, and more vegetables. So far so good.

It then went on to recommend that people eat less fat, with an emphasis on low fat and non fat foods. The problem is that there is no distinguishing here between good and bad fats. And that is a crucial distinction that should be made.

Numerous hunter-gatherer cultures, which never suffered from heart disease, have eaten as much fat as they could get their hands on. Look at the Eskimos subsisting on seal blubber, salmon, caribou, and little else.

These whole foods contain the vital fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K - in much larger quantities than today's processed fats. The human brain is made up of 50 percent fat. By stripping these fats out of the diet we are not only starving our bodies - ironic when you consider the obesity epidemic - but we are denying our brains their most basic fuel.

No wonder we - and the USDA - can't think clearly.