Too Much Government: Dump the Dietary Guidelines

That’s the opinion of the IBD, in an editorial today, which makes a very salient point: under which clause in the American constitution do the feds have the right to dictate what we eat? Especially when they have no idea what they’re talking about:

Nutrition: As the federal government wrestles with how much meat and cholesterol it will recommend in its updated dietary guidelines, the public should be asking why the government is involved in this issue at all. Right now, the officials at the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments are weighing advice from their Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee for the five-year guideline update. The committee said that there’s no evidence cholesterol in food leads to heart disease. At the same time, it urged people to avoid eating meat as a way to help the environment.

Emphasis mine. No evidence… but, hey, if it helps just one tiny little piece of the sacred “environment” — then put that burger down and step away from the lunch counter before we open fire.

Because federal nutrition guidelines have a widespread impact on what Americans eat, both ideas sparked outcries from various groups. But there’s a much more fundamental problem here. When not confusing (remember the food pyramid), or ever-changing (the government used to recommend three glasses of milk a day), these federal guidelines can be hazardous to your health.

Worse, the government’s war on fatty foods actually may have contributed to the nation’s obesity problem. The City Journalnoted that “several top medical scientists have concluded that the government’s carb-heavy guidelines may actually have harmed public health.” Indeed, if you look at the obesity trend in the U.S., you see it started its rapid climb in the late 1970s…

Rather than try to expand its turf, and cram environmental correctness down everyone’s throat, the federal government should get out of the nutrition guideline business altogether.

Amen. Long past time to back the feds off, using the 9th and 10th amendments as our principal weapons. Because they’ll take every last drop of our freedom if we let them, unleash an army of shyster lawyers on us to explain why they can, and armed men to back them up if we disagree. Make them stick to the letter of the law for a while, and see how they like it.