No. Even the current (2015-2020) Dietary Guidelines for Americans (as issued by the US Department of Agriculture) have acknowledged that: “Other food components, such as dietary fiber, while not essential, also are considered to be nutrients.” Nevertheless, recommendations to eat fibre riddle the document. That quote is hidden away in Appendix 6 – Glossary of
It seems to be commonly accepted that cows are bad for the environment (methane emissions contributing to global heating, soil damage) and are a drain on resources that could be put to better use (grains, water). These hypotheses are false when scrutinised objectively. Furthermore, their opposites are true – cattle can be beneficial to the
When the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) were first proposed in 1980, they were already oriented away from meat and towards plants. As each iteration of the guidelines was produced (at 5-yearly intervals) this trend was reinforced. So much so that, during the development of the 2015 guidelines, there was a discussion among the committee
It probably started when medical authorities put the blame for heart disease (atherosclerosis) on circulating cholesterol. In the modern era, this goes back to the 1950s or before, when heart disease was still relatively rare, but increasing. Heart disease became publicly prominent in 1955, when US President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack (which he survived).
Briefly, the cholesterol hypothesis proposes that by getting into arterial walls and causing atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in arteries), cholesterol increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cerebrovascular disease (strokes). However, according to a perhaps unlikely source – the American Heart Association: “Exactly how atherosclerosis starts or what causes it isn’t known.” That’s an admission