Page 5 - Fall2010

Letters

organic foods—USDA extension work- chemicals parading as food that is de- ers to drink lowfat or skim milk, or tell
ers are instructed to say that organic is void of nutrients is “the safest food in the a group of teenagers not to eat too much
merely a niche marketing tool denoting world,” the agency lacks the track record red meat but to choose lean chicken or
no inherent quality differences from and credibility to take it upon itself to turkey instead, or tell a pregnant woman
conventional agriculture. impose or decide for anyone else what with gestational diabetes to limit her egg
This claim could be true for people to eat. The USDA should only ensure yolks to one or two a week, or tell a dia-
who don’t care whether their food that people have a manageable access to betic that she can eat pancakes as long
is laced with endocrine-disrupting the information and be fully informed. as she uses artificially-sweetened syrup
chemicals such as atrazine, which is But this will not happen unless enough and margarine, or tell me to get a ninety-
definitively linked to disfigured frogs; or people demand it. So that should be part pound eighty-five-year-old woman some
who don’t worry about the use of bovine of our strategy. lowfat cheese because the doctor has her
growth hormone (BgH) in conventional A Maryland legislative commission on a lowfat, low-cholesterol diet.
dairy cows, which so overloads the cows adopted this approach in a 1995 compar- These are things I have witnessed as
their udders drag on the ground and the ison of holistic medicine with allopathic a dietitian. All are the result of the idiotic
cows develop infections that lead to medicine, based on documented reports Dietary Guidelines that has everyone in
higher levels of antibiotic administra- in mainstream medical journals. The fear of saturated fat.
tion. Some mothers do not want their senator who chaired the commission Pam Schoenfeld, RD
sons consuming dairy products with this told me how the conventional doctors Mendham, New Jersey
artificially injected female hormone. on the commission were trying to gut
USDA should ensure that the infor- efforts to include documented findings FOOD NOT EDIBLE
mation is there for those who want it. favoring holistic modalities. So she ex- I work as a dietitian in a large prison
Instead of one-size-fits-all guidelines, tended the commission for a third year hospital. This is a hospital that cares for
the USDA should post all of the testi- and used that time to create a chart that prisoners in the southeast who are too ill
mony and the accompanying research, speaks for itself: six disorders broken to live in the prison, mentally or physi-
and let people decide for themselves. down into four categories with side-by- cally.
The USDA could simplify the side comparisons of the two modalities I am not allowed to give the prison-
information in the form of a chart that regarding costs, side effects, efficacy ers more food, even if they are extremely
highlights the main components of each and outcomes. In every category, the underweight or losing weight. If some-
identified diet, summarizes the claimed holistic treatment outperformed the al- one is losing too much weight, I am able
effects from the diet (pro and con), and lopathic option. By putting the findings to add some awful corn syrup-based
includes some of the supporting re- in the form of a chart, the comparisons “health shakes,” that is all. The food is
search. The agency could host a website are clearly described, and the outcomes not edible. Most of it is processed, cold
that provides the public with a complete are readily apparent and undeniable. and very often premade and frozen.
resource list for each diet. Alyce Ortuzar Snacks twice a day include nu-
Given the USDA’s support for Well Mind Association trigrain bars, chips or snack crackers.
concentrated animal feeding opera- of Greater Washington A large food management company
tions (CAFOs) despite their unsanitary Ashton, Maryland handles food service at many prisons,
conditions and unhealthy animals, for and is for profit.
irradiation to try to make these con- IDIOTIC GUIDELINES Strangely, the hospital is never
taminated products safe to consume, I would be so happy if I never again surveyed by Joint Commission or the
for cloned products parading as food, had to hear a dietitian or a USDA-trained Department of Health for quality of care
and for telling the American people that nutritionist tell a class of kindergarten- as other acute care or long term care

FALL 2010 Wise Traditions 5