Do you think the Government should regulate nutrition?

Do you think the Government's nutritional guidelines are accurate?

Yes-- We still have an epidemic of obesity and disease because guidelines are not followed.	7.1%	[ 1 ]
Yes-- We have weight-related diseases, and it's the Government's prerogative to help its people.	0.0%	[ 0 ]
Yes-- We may not know the answers now, but the Government should be working to find them.	0.0%	[ 0 ]
No-- The Government should step back and allow total responsibility to be placed on the people.	21.4%	[ 3 ]
No-- Nutrition isn't general to all people, everyone should se a dietician for their lifestyle plans.	28.6%	[ 4 ]
No-- The USDA Guidelines are wrong and are the source of our problems.	21.4%	[ 3 ]
I don't care.	21.4%	[ 3 ]
Total Votes:			[ 14 ]

[ICENSOREDl]

Poll, mostly out of curiosity. Basically, for those of you who are American, what are your thoughts on the USDA Guidelines? Should they be there, or should the Government step out of the equation? Why do you come to this conclusion?

Sorry for it being aimed at the U.S. Other nationalities can throw in their 2 cents, also. c:

[Commander Sigma]

I think the government should force companies to be more open about what "natural flavorings" are, and get rid of the idiotic laws that state things like "Trans fat free" if it has less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. It'd also be nice, albeit not entirely necessary, if products with Yellow 5 had warnings for the presence of Tartrazine like they do in other countries.

It's not likely any of that will happen due to the power of lobbying groups though, so whatever.

[Fk-Panda]

copy what japan did, make being fat illegal

[Chibi Halo]

Honestly, the guidelines should be just that guidelines. They can recommend we eat X, Y, and Z to be healthy but they shouldn't force us to. In the end the decision to be healthy or not should be ours and ours alone. I can understand what people like Bloomberg and Cuomo are trying to accomplish with having regulations that tell all fast food restaurants in New York they must have the calorie count for each item on the menu board. It's not because they want to make people eat the lower calorie foods. It's because they want the consumer to have an informed decision. If, after knowing the calorie count and the fat content in a particular food, you still go ahead and choose to eat it then it falls on nobody's shoulders but your own. A company can try to produce healthy foods that follow all of the guidelines and try and advertise those foods to consumers but beyond that they can't make us buy it or eat it. We have to want to have the healthy foods.

Food science is always advancing and finding out new information about what it is we eat. Oh sure, a lot of the studies aren't funded through the USDA but the food companies and food industries to get people into believing they're being healthy with their choices when they're not. It's why a slice of oily pizza with barely any sauce and cheese on it is considered a serving of vegetables in a school cafeteria when it barely qualifies as a serving of what it really is, fruit. Either the Florida Tomato Growers or the tomato industry in California, in an effort to boost their profits, convinced an entire industry that tomatoes aren't a fruit but a vegetable. A lot of labels on foods are outright lying when they tell people that they contain a full serving of vegetables when all they contain is a tomato based sauce.

Scientifically, tomatoes are a berry which makes them a fruit but either Florida or California has the nation convinced for marketing purposes tomatoes are a vegetable. I won't even go into how controlling the Florida Tomato Growers Association is about the look of the tomatoes being grown and sold in Florida. However, you add their marketing pull with the pizza industry's money to throw around to hire enough lobbyists and the USDA gets shoved aside two years ago and pizza counts as a serving of vegetables in our nation's school lunches. Vegetable growers just don't have the lobbying power the pizza people do it seems and it's a crying shame because we've been conditioned from birth by the food industry, not the USDA, to believe tomatoes are a vegetable and a serving size of vegetables is now one eighth of a cup or the equivalent of two tablespoons, which is barely enough to make a thin layer of "sauce" on a slice of oily cardboard pizza.

So while I commend the USDA for trying to give us the tools to make more informed decisions when it comes to our overall eating habits, they lose out big time when it comes to the power and money of the food industry and their lobbyists. In the end, it all falls back on us to make the wise choices about the foods we eat.

[keiiii]

No, but the public could certainly benefit from more education on nutrition. Right now a lot of people don't really know where to start. For example, when I see people trying to lose weight ditch meat and turn to nuts for their primary source of protein, that's just... no. gonk Nuts are good for you but are extremely high calorie, and need to be consumed in moderation. Even a fatty cut of meat contains more protein per calorie than nuts do!

(Not that going meatless is a bad thing. You just need to educate yourself on how to get the nutrients, whether you eat meat or not.)

Education = yes
Enforcement = no

[Keally212]

Super Fightin Prototype

I think the government should force companies to be more open about what "natural flavorings" are, and get rid of the idiotic laws that state things like "Trans fat free" if it has less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. It'd also be nice, albeit not entirely necessary, if products with Yellow 5 had warnings for the presence of Tartrazine like they do in other countries.

It's not likely any of that will happen due to the power of lobbying groups though, so whatever.

i agree
they should focus on educating us about what is in our food rather then not letting us eat something

[Commander Sigma]

Keally212

Super Fightin Prototype

I think the government should force companies to be more open about what "natural flavorings" are, and get rid of the idiotic laws that state things like "Trans fat free" if it has less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. It'd also be nice, albeit not entirely necessary, if products with Yellow 5 had warnings for the presence of Tartrazine like they do in other countries.

It's not likely any of that will happen due to the power of lobbying groups though, so whatever.

i agree
they should focus on educating us about what is in our food rather then not letting us eat something

Pretty much. Telling people not to eat something only irritates them and creates a taboo but if we educate people on what they're putting in their bodies, they can make their own decision as to whether or not they enjoy things such as the scent glands of a beaver (castoreum) being used as the "natural vanilla flavor" in their favorite foods. Labeling that in particular would be especially helpful for vegans, I'd imagine.

[XenoReiji]

I say no, we all make choices and with those choices come consequences. With nutrition and health those consequences usually involve expensive medical care or early death. We live in an enlightened age where we understand how food and nutrition work. Those who have problems have no excuse really.

With nutrition a little mindfulness goes a long way. The government can suggest and make the information available, but oppression is never the answer. You would think with all the people getting sick and dying because they cannot afford to go to the doctor more people would realize the importance of nutrition.

[Yoshihara Yuki]

On one side, fast food industry and diet industry bring massive revenue for the government . . . have you ever thought of that?

[Latopazora]

If the government is so concerned about our health- especially since they want a single payer health plan, they should start with the biggest offenders: big aggro and big pharma. I think its funny that they want to go after our fat, but they'll let Monsanto continue to monopolize the aggro industry with their gmo foods.
It seems to me that the government is going after the issue that's easier and more profitable for them, rather than beneficial for us. Obesity is a problem that should only be between the individual and their doctor. If I choose to kill myself by eating to the point of morbid obesity, that's my choice, but at the same time, I should also have the choice to eat organic and not be forced to buy bottled water if I don't want to drink fluoride contaminated water.
But then, big pharma, big aggro (Monsanto) and many other large industries give the governments large sums of money, to buy their votes. While we, the people who are forced to pay the government, are being fed poison and being told its healthy.
I'm not worried about large industries like fast foods and the like, since they can't force me to eat their product. I eat their food under my own admonition, but I very rarely do eat their food, I no longer drink soda, I don't buy processed food anymore.
But just because something is labeled 'organic' is not an guarantee I'm really eating organic food. I can't be sure the meat I'm eating is good meat. If going vegetarian was a fool proof mean of eating organic, I'd go vegetarian, but its our vegetables that are getting altered for profit. So vegetarianism/veganism isn't 100%, probably not even 50% if you're on a budget. And I do eat fruit and vegetables, I've almost got to a point where I'm more concerned with how much the bag broccoli costs rather than if its organic.

Sorry for the wall of rant text, but it just bugs the hell out of me that the government wants into our kitchen, but they won't go after groups like Monsanto or big pharma.

[Chibi Halo]

Latopazora

It's at that point if you can afford to do so you shop for all of your produce at a local farmer's market or join a local CSA and strike up a relationship with the small farmers who provide boxes of produce and hormone free meat. I've had properly raised hormone free CSA turkey before for Christmas (we got it for Thanksgiving but waited until Christmas to have it) from my brother's close friend who is a farmer and to me it had a much better flavor to it, because it was more tender, than the mass produced turkeys raised for Butterball on the factory farms. If you have a relationship with the people growing and raising your food then you know where it comes from and the conditions used to produce it. Plus, when you go to a farmer's market you'll have the option of getting produce so fresh it was sitting on the vine that morning, especially if you shop at a stand run by a local farmer. That's why I'm looking forward to the return of the farmer's markets where I live because most grocery store produce comes to market in less than perfect condition.

[Latopazora]

Chibi Halo

Latopazora

I know, I keep telling myself that I need to check out the farmer's market in our area. But when it comes to the government and our health, they need to worry about how powerful big aggro and big pharma are getting, and not how fat we are. Its just a matter of priorities. Yes, I need to make more of an effort to search out the farmer's market and make sure I get the quality food, but I want to make sure the food remains natural and high quality, and not Monsanto produce.