philosophical

The ever increasing incidence of chronic diseases among humans is
alarming, when considering the fact that other animals have not
experienced these same increases. What could be the cause for these
differences? Other species of animals have, on occasion, incurred some of
these diseases which are caused by malnutrition. The literature provides
evidence of major changes that occurred in the late 1950s. These changes
affected the manner in which nutritional research was conducted. This
resulted in a much different way of looking at nutrition and its effect on
human health:

Human nutrition was distanced from animal nutrition, although
animal studies had earlier provided the foundation for human
nutrition.
The food pyramid was developed and recommended by the US
Department of Agriculture, (USDA). Their recommendations
included increasing the consumption of fruits, vegetables, poultry
meats, and soy protein. They demonized beef and pork for thirty
years, and severely limited milk and egg consumption. Their
position now is to restrict consumption to very small portions, only
if trimmed of all visible fat.
New recommendations discouraged the use of vitamin and mineral
supplements.
Animal fat was no longer to be consumed, but replaced with
vegetable oils.
Cholesterol was to be limited in the diet by avoiding beef, pork,
milk, and eggs or other animal source foods.
The scientific method for testing hypotheses was replaced with the
double blind test using placebos.