When the government speaks, people listen. Well, even though they may not necessarily do everything it says, they–including many family doctors–do take the principles to heart. So the flip-flop of that ubiquitious “National Dietary Guidlines” triangle from top-heavy with meat and protein back when baby-boomers were flooding the world, to today’s somewhat inverted version stressing healthy carbs and low fat (hmmmm…how many of the dietary guideline formulators are boomers and how many are Gen X, Gen Y?), does that mean healthy eating has changed? Or does it mean the government doesn’t actually know? A couple of docs writing in the New England Journal of Medicine posit that the real situation is that the government doesn’t know–and that that’s okay. But that they shouldn’t, then, be issuing guidelines that many people will follow.

Seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? If you don’t know for sure, you don’t pontificate on the subject. But that’s not the way the human mind and heart work. When your “subjects” look to you for guidance, you tend to really want to give it to them–to have them see you as strong and wise. And if you don’t give it to them, they tend to get very nervous and insecure. So the temptation for you, the emperor, is to just make your best educated guess. Read the story here:National Nutrition Guidelines worthless?