M.A.D. Versus S.A.D.

Paleo and low-carb diet advocates like to refer to the diet that's making America sick as the Standard American Diet, SAD.  It's a happy acronym, because it's makes a clear point, but not clear enough, I think.

I prefer to call in the Modern American Diet, MAD, because the diet our great-grandparents ate, even if they lived in the United States, was a healthy one, resulting in low rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

I also like my acronym more because the diet that the scientific and medical establishments have foisted on us isn't just sad, it's insane.

So this bit of news (via Summer Tomato) is even more infuriating, on several levels:

"Nine in 10 Americans say their diet is healthy but only a quarter limit the amount of fat or sugar they eat, and two-thirds don't eat enough fruit and vegetables, a poll published Tuesday found.

"'Americans tend to give themselves high marks for healthy eating, but when we asked how many sugary drinks, fatty foods, and fruits and veggies they consumed, we found that their definition of healthy eating was questionable,' said Nancy Metcalf of Consumer Reports Health, which conducted the poll."

First: most Americans make a good effort to follow the dietary advice they've been given.  This is reflected in the food sales statistics as compiled by the USDA.

Second: If you follow the advice given by the authorities, you will get sick.  Not least because they recommend that you get most of your fat from linoleic acid, which is toxic in the doses regularly consumed in America.

Despite the fact that people are following the advice given, and that the advice given doesn't work, we are all exhorted to double our efforts.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." --Albert Einstein

As an aside, the dietary advice we're given is skewed by vegetarians, as you can see from the quote above.  Are vegetarians healthier than non-vegetarians?  Nope. 

(If you want to be a vegetarian, for moral or religious reasons, that's fine by me.  It should be a free country.  But if one objectively evaluates the vegetarian diet, it falls short.)

If you were to come to the conclusion that people are intentionally trying to make us sick, it wouldn't be surprising.

And we don't even need to get into the fact that our authorities tax us to subsidize farmers to grow the food that is making us sick.

The MAD is insane.