Dietary Guidelines or a Free Lunch?
Terri Coles of Reuters (Toronto) recently wrote an interesting article on the new Dietary Guidelines. Coles is one of the few writers who wisely made reference to the Yeshiva University study , written by Marantz, Bird and Alderman, from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and published in January, 2008 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The authors wrote that the members of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee should use explicit standards of evidence in making their nutritional recommendations. If not, their recommendations could end up producing unintended consequences that may have a negative impact on public health.
Most importantly, the authors proposed that there should be alternative and more rigorous standard for evidentiary support, and went as far as to state that when adequate evidence is not available, the best option may be to issue no guidelines . Now, how courageous is that?
Imagine - saying that you should not make any recommendations until you have reliable data - extraordinary!
