The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is still wrong. Reflecting on the obesity epidemic, an IOM spokesperson laments that “People have heard the advice to eat less and move more for years, and during that time a large number of Americans have become obese. That advice will never be out of date.” What makes you so sure, oh, IOM spokesperson?
The spokesperson erroneously claims that the only thing that has changed over the last 60 years is the environment, but in fact an equally significant change has been in the content of standard dietary advice and the composition of our daily diet. Government advice since the days of President Eisenhower’s first heart attack has urged us to reduce fat, and in fact over 6 decades we have obediently reduced fat and increased our carbohydrate consumption.
Why doesn’t the IOM see the potential for carbohydrates being the culprit? The IOM doubts that there is a single solution, but if they started with by identifying the true culprit and modeling public policy based on that culprit, we might see real progress. Until that time, watch this website for more weight loss tools that can make a real difference.
