Jean, add to that the fear of liability in the medical community forces the continued following of the standards of care. Physicians are reluctant to go against these recommendations for fear of malpractice litigation. Yes, there are a lot of forces at the top that make it very difficult for change toward nutritional health and the re-education of the population to understand what is a healthy approach for them. Grassroots is the way this is changing, and I'm seeing it start to take hold in some of the organizations that have influence. Teicholz's current mantra and objective is to change the DGA. It is going to be difficult, and it won't occur all at once. Yet, I believe it will over time.

While it's a morbid thought, Max Planck's quote is something I keep in mind relative to improving health awareness:

My doctor told me to "just keep doing what I was doing" after witnessing my weight and health improvements in the early months of my WOE. Do you think that is grounds for a malpractice lawsuit? She knew what I was doing and she told me to keep doing it anyway. Not so with my neighbor - an RN specializing in diet and lifestyle support for diabetics. After she noticed that I'd lost 100+ pounds she asked me what I was doing. After hearing about my diet she gave me a free 10 minute lecture on how I should be eating. You know the drill... saturated fat is bad, eat whole grains, fruits, and vegetables and have your sweet treats in moderation. So who did the right thing? My doctor or my RN neighbor? By the book it was my RN neighbor. So my doctor is, in fact, complicit in encouraging my dangerous, unsanctioned LCHF WOE.

Funny thing, though... How many times have your read where one of us LCHF/Keto folks went to the doctor and heard that very same advice that my doctor gave me? "Just keep doing what you are doing" I've seen it dozens of times. Results matter and the doctors see our positive results. But that oft repeated comment from impressed doctors tell me that they are all gun shy when it comes to dietary advice not in keeping with official guidelines.

Our grassroots effort, our results will make a difference. But I fear it will be painfully slow. Nina Teicholz is right. We need change from the top. I too believe that changes to the overall guidelines will be slow in coming. They are not going to just flip the food pyramid upside down in 2020 no matter what forces of change are at play. BUT my hope is that they will bend enough to insert some special guidelines for the metabolically ill - one that at least references low carb WOE as a potential treatment. Even a few such lines inserted into the guidelines could have a dramatic effect. Suddenly it would be OK for doctors to recommend low carb for their patients with metabolic issues. That would be a significant percentage of their regular patients. Results matter and with LC the doctors will get amazing results from their patients who do their best to follow "doctor's orders". When the results start rolling in, others will jump on the bandwagon.

That is my hope, anyway. If a few remarks about potential benefits of low carb manage to slip their way the new 2020 guidelines, that might be just enough of a crack to open the door to real change.

BTW: Have you read any of the comments for the 2020 guidelines that have been posted already? Of the 50 posted so far most are aligned with my beliefs. I half expected vegans, vegetarians, and global warming people to pounce at the opportunity to burry our recommendations for change with 10,000 opposing views. Perhaps I should keep my mouth shut. I don't want to give them any ideas.

Oops. I spoke too soon. The last batch of new comments are well off the mark, including a "no meat requirement" recommendation. What will the policy makers do with such schizophrenic comments? I guess time will tell.

I'm one of those whose doctor said at one time, "just keep doing what you're doing." I give him credit for asking me whether I'd be open to statins even though he knows my stance. On top of that, I have no health test indicators that statins would be beneficial other than my age. But he can truthfully note in my chart that the patient refused the offer of statins. He's safe. Lucky thing!

There are now so many dietary camps weighing in on the DGA, that it will take years to satisfy everyone. And this is what it's coming down to, satisfying different camps as there is little evidence that the DGA authors are willing to cite supporting a sound protocol of healthy eating. What a mess

Exactly, he has to ask about them. Likewise, my GP brought it up, and said no, done.

I told my doctor that there was no reason for me to have my cholesterol checked since under no circumstances would I take a statin. She has stopped even suggesting that I get the blood testing done. What's the point? She seems to get it. I think it helps that I stay thin and fit, something she doesn't see too often in people my age, especially ones that were formally obese. I imagine she writes all this down so she can say she did her best but I refused.

Jean

I've seen this before, and while it might be true eventually, it's not something that we should assume will solve the issue for us sooner rather than later.

I have a university textbook that I've been picking through these last few months, recommended for second year human nutrition students. It's a recent edition too, revised 2017, yet it still offers the same old arguments: calories are all that matter, if people aren't losing weight then they're not trying hard enough, if they can't try any harder then it's drugs or surgery, lowcarb is a fad, DASH diet is best, ketosis is undesirable, whole grains are healthy, etc...

With the old guard having positioned themselves to ensure that their views perpetuate in this way long after they're gone, you start to realise that for all the bottom-up progress we are making, things still have a long way to go overall.

BRILLIANT! Strong testimony, concisely worded!

Send, send, send, khrussva!!

(And bless you for the time and effort you put into documenting for the USDA the path to healing for those of us with sugar/refined carb issues. Thank you for representing us so well.)

Thank you. I'm just doing my part. The way I see it is that I was a prime (perhaps extreme) example of the problem. While my health, capabilities, and productivity had been on the downward slope for years I was at the cusp of something new. I was at the dividing line where my existence was going to become a financial drain on society at large. That is kind of a cold and harsh way to put it, but it terms of dollars and cents that is the truth of it. Had I done nothing I'm sure that I would be on multiple prescription drugs by now. I may have had a heart attack and related surgery like my brother did. More than likely I'd be have had expensive weight loss surgery done, which is covered by my current insurance. With or without WLS it is very possible that I could be on social security disability by now and I'm not even 55 years old. I was in dire straights and I didn't know what I could do to make things better. Then LCHF as a lifestyle change entered the picture. Problem solved.

I represent millions of people who are at varying stages along the same road to premature health problems. I hope that they "get" my message. Of course our lives are valuable in endless ways -- it is not simply about being a burden on our family finances or society at large. But in this world money talks. Even a vegan might forgive me and turn the other way when I eat a steak if they only realized that their health care and insurance costs would be drastically reduced if the sickest among us started getting better. A LCHF way of eating has worked wonders for me and others like me. It is time for the powers that be to recognize that and do something meaningful to address the health crisis that we all face.

BTW: My comment is posted: HERE

I was happy to see that they included all of my attachments. So the details of my story are all part of my comment. I read through the comments submitted so far and there are a couple of other testimonials such as mine in support of the LC WOE. Lets hope that we see more and more of them to drive home the message.

Hey Ken, can you provide a link to where-ever comments are being posted? I've looked and can't find them.

https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=FNS-2018-0005

Looks like a 'plant based' group is now promoting their cause. A cut and paste comment is repeated dozens of times under different names.

Yep, the Vegans have come out in full force...the overwhelming majority of them using a cut and paste statement saying "I'm in favor of more healthy, plant-based whole foods being added to Americans' diets. I want the USDA to recommend more fresh produce and less meat and dairy, which have been shown to have harmful effects on the environment and on human health. I'm calling on the USDA to create guidelines that are designed with Americans' health in mind, and not the interests of corporations and lobbyists."

In fact, out of curiosity, I ran a control F search and fully 74 of the current 215 comments use EXACTLY that language. Amazing the degree of uniformity.

I'd like to THINK that Ken's obviously thoughtful and completely individualized comment would have more impact all by itself than all those dozens of cut-n-paste knee-jerk reactions.

I'd like to THINK so...but unfortunately, I don't. Some low level flunky will be tasked with summarizing the public comments and he/she will simply pass along the information that a HUGE percentage of comments - at this point over 1/3rd! - were in favor of "healthy plant-based" recommendations. And that doesn't even count the ones who took the time to draft their own mild variation on a theme. Eg., "Please make it healthy and plant based."

Ken's comment will likely be ignored as an outlier.

Personally, I think the best we could hope for would be for the USDA to get OUT Of the business of trying to tell us what foods we should/shouldn't eat.

Instead, maybe Health and Human Services could recommend minimum and maximum suggested daily amounts for various nutrients and calories (by age and activity levels) as well as suggested maximums for some of the more problematic anti-nutrients. They could even provide special guidelines for pregnant women, nursing mothers, growing children, type 1 and type 2 diabetics, the aged, etc.

Then the USDA could provide accurate data regarding the nutrients, calories, and anti-nutrients found in various food options and leave it to us to figure out for ourselves which foods to eat to get the nutrients we need while avoiding anti-nutrients as much as possible.

I have no problems with someone else choosing to eat a plant-based diet that is heavy on the grains. Their body, their choice! In fact I had a house guest this past weekend who is vegan and I went out of my way to prepare a vegan mussaman curry for her. BUT, I want the same respect. Unfortunately, it seems that for many vegans, veganism is not simply a food/health choice. It is a "moral choice" and they, quite literally, want to shove their morals down my throat... no matter what it might do to my health.

Jean, I agree. Big Pharma, Big Food and Big Medicine may SAY they want us healthy, but does anybody believe them?

Change, however, is happening. The Coca Cola Company has been forced to diversify because young people have cut back so much on fizzy drinks. The young are smarter and better informed than some of us codgers. There will soon be an alcoholic Coke drink available in Japan, made with locally sourced booze.

We are the proof that our WOE promotes better health. Someday, hopefully soon, the world at large will catch up. We are what the tech world used to call Early Adopters.

Nothing to worry about:

MAY or MAY NOT. THAT IS THE QUESTION. Washington is so full of people within and external organizations/lobbyists pushing their agendas. I'm sure that some "plant based" advocates will be sitting on the decision panel. If they have their way the vegan mass mailing will not be dismissed. I love this new term "Plant Based" - meant to soften the activist connotation of saying that we should all be vegans.

Because I signed the Noakes petition I received a mass email from Dr. Sarah Hallberg yesterday urging us to participate. She didn't provide a block and copy statement for us to submit, though. I guess that we are supposed to think for ourselves.