RSS
Home
Your USDA opinion is wanted
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Metabolism Society
I am a proud member of The Nutrition and Metabolism Society. It is one of the very few honest and scientific resources for learning and understanding how nutrition (and exercise) affects us. There is no nutritional agenda or dogma, just the facts. Keeping this organization alive by becoming a member or at least telling people you know about it, would be smart thing to do.
Dr. Richard Feinman, professor of biochemistry at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and the director of the NM Society sent me an email today asking and explaining the following:
"The question bears on recommendations along the lines of the USDA meeting that is coming up. It arises from a seminar that Eric Westman gave at Downstate. The group at Downstate is not particularly doctrinaire and the talk was well received but Dr. Sheldon Landesman of the School of Public Health raised a good question: "The major focus of diets based on carbohydrate restriction are fundamentally therapeutic. How could the benefits that you presented be utilized in making recommendations to the population at large?" So while 20 grams of carbohydrates a day might be very beneficial for somebody with diabetes or somebody trying to make a big impact on weight loss, even the maintenance phase of people on low carbohydrate diets may be different than what would be recommended for everybody.
Also whereas the population at large has significant amount of overweight and obesity, a large part of the population is not overweight and even those who are, may not want to lose weight at the moment. The question is quite pressing in that the USDA has convened a panel to make new recommendations for 2010. Many of us are upset that there is no representation of the panel of people who have experience with carbohydrate restriction and some who are on the panel are probably actively antagonistic to such an approach. On the other hand, Brian Wansink, the chairman of the committee is aware of the problem and open to suggestions on carbohydrate restriction.
So, the question is: how can the benefits of carbohydrate restriction that you may have experienced personally or in your immediate environment be translated into reasonable recommendations that the USDA could put out? In other words, if you actually had your way what kind of recommendations would you like to see the USDA make? Recommendations should be short and to the point.
If you can encourage your readers to send their suggestions to your blog and also copy to Lauri Cagnassola (nmsoci@nmsociety.org) the Metabolism Society will organize them. We will publish the results in the scientific and popular literature and also communicate some of the main points to Brian Wansink."
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
