the government" isn't really a singular entity, nor is there only a single government that has nutrition guidelines . . . Admittedly governments are influenced by lobbyists from the meat, dairy, and grains they subsidize, in terms of Non-government recommendations.
I don't believe anyone said "the government is a single entity", or that "there is only a single government with nutritional guidelines". Every US government department or agency I'm aware of that does testing are guilty of flawed procedures and inaccurate results. Probably one of the worst factors are the corporate lobbyists; and I'm not aware of a single government in the developed world that is not subject to this corrupting influence. So - I for one - will not accept ANYTHING stamped by, approved by, or recommended by the USDA, FDA, EPA or the E.T.C. I could cite dozens of anecdotal examples why I'm so jaded, but I suspect - with this Permies group - it isn't necessary. All that IS necessary is that we all start thinking independently ... rationally. Far too many Americans just simply want to believe everything our government says ... everything the AMA says ... everything the media says. Have you never caught your government in a lie or even just a mistake? How many lies or mistakes do you suppose have gone undetected - at least by you?
Once a lie (or a mistake) has been perpetrated for a sufficient length of time - the perpetrators (usually the government, sometimes institutions or industries like the AMA, the Am Dental Assn, Big Pharma, the Asbestos industry, etc. etc.) cannot come clean. The liabilities are too high. Like fluoride in our drinking water (a boneheaded decision that they can never reverse). Like mercury in our fillings. Or the sanctioning of GMO's, refusal of fair labeling, or just the ability for a private organization to patent a living organism. It's similar to Congress' inability to repeal laws; no matter how bad they are, they stay on the books forever, with only very minor modifications. In a way, this propensity for avoiding liabilities makes sense: if the error was admitted and atonement required - who pays? Our already broke government and the NEXT generation of taxpayers?
... If you check, the vast majority of guidelines around the world, promote having vegetables and fruits as the largest category, followed by grains, only then followed by meat&alternatives, dairy&alternatives and other.
True. But why? The vast majority of the people on Earth cannot afford meat. In our modern agriculture - the amount of money, time, land, petroleum and carbon footprint required to feed a population MEAT is 10 to 20 times greater than it is to feed them vegetables and grains. And that figure is based on the meat manufacturing system in the USA - AFTER ALL OF THE GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES are factored in. The expense of including meat in our diets WITHOUT subsidies would be even greater than a 10-20 factor. The average American could NOT afford to eat meat on a regular basis if it were not for the feed-lots and meat-factories funded by those subsidies. Now - if that's true for us privileged Americans - imagine how true it must be for the billions living in underdeveloped, underfunded countries?
So what's a government to do? Tell their masses
"If you want to be healthy - you must include large amounts of meat and animal fats in your diet? And not that cheap meat that McD sells - it must be the very expensive grass-feed, antibiotic and hormone free meat. BUT - there's not nearly enough of it for YOU - so, sorry."
Or - do they publish the official nutritional guidelines that the government and the people can actual obtain and afford? I think the later. Very often - it makes perfectly good sense
WHY our government lies to us.
But that doesn't change the fact that it's a LIE.
