Summary: Government "Help" Worsens Nutrition

This is the last of a series of postings on how government food regulations intended to improve the diet of Americans have been consistent long-term failures. They have been not only futile but detrimental to the health of millions of people, as demonstrated in the these postings: (Click on highlighted word for the post.)

Government “Help” Worsens Nutrition: FATS
Government “Help” Worsens Nutrition: MILK, etc.
Government “Help” Worsens Nutrition: SALT

In the first of the above series we explained how the government for over a half century perpetuated the fraudulent ideas about saturated fat in foods raising cholesterol and, consequently, heart attacks. Government promoted eating more pasta, grains, fruit and starchy vegetables to replace meat, eggs and cheese. “The problem is that carbohydrates break down into glucose, which causes the body to release insulin—a hormone that is fantastically efficient at storing fat....Excessive carbohydrates lead not only to obesity but also, over time, to Type 2 diabetes and, very likely, heart disease.”

In the second of the series we explained how the federal school lunch program has made nutrition worse for children, leaving more of them unsatisfied and hungry. The program has resulted in fewer children drinking milk, many going without meals, and schools—even whole districts—dropping out of the program.  Enormous amounts of money are spent, and vast quantities of food are wasted while children go hungry and are buying more “junk” food to satisfy their hunger.

The third in the series shows government policies on salt are more dangerous than the salt Americans devour. For decades the government medical establishment claimed Americans consumed too much salt, raising the risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and stroke. The recommended daily sodium intake was 1,500 to 2,300 milligrams or lower. But research has shown that people consuming 3,000 to 6,000 milligrams have the lowest risk of heart problems, stroke or death. Those consuming 3,000 or fewer milligrams of sodium were found to have a 27% higher risk of heart problems, stroke or death.

If a private company or organization compiled that kind of record, it would have ceased to exist long ago, not persisted as the federal government has in this field for 35 years with pseudo-science and bad advice. As we have shown, the people would be healthier without these government efforts. Yet there is virtually no chance Congress will end this and countless other unsuccessful programs which the federal government should have never gotten into in the first place, where it has no constitutional authority. It has simply usurped powers it was never intended to have, and those usurpations have been abetted by U.S. Supreme Court decisions which are themselves violative of the Constitution. Thus we can expect no redress from Congress or the Supreme Court for the almost continuous expansion of federal regulations and control over our lives since the administration of Franklin Roosevelt.

It seems our only solution would be through another constitutional convention by an application of two-thirds of the legislatures of the states to consider amendments, as specified in Article V of the Constitution. In my books I have written more extensively on this subject and identified specific amendments that are necessary to reign in the federal government and reverse particular Supreme Court rulings.

Nobel Prize winner Friedrich Hayek, author of The Road to Serfdom, wrote, “By giving the government unlimited powers, the most arbitrary rule can be made legal; and in this way a democracy may set up the most complete despotism imaginable.” We are well down that road he warned against.