simple question what's actually healthy
for you to eat we know this is good for
you what is this what about this this or
this if you're confused over what is and
isn't healthy to eat you're not alone
knowing what to eat is complicated and a
big reason it's so complicated
is as green as your leafy vegetables so
here's the situation a draft of the most
recent US government dietary
recommendations said that a healthy diet
is lower in red and processed meats
which have been associated with
increased death rates from cancer and
heart disease that's until the meat
lobby caught wind of it now the caution
was dropped from the guidelines in
addition to the food lobbies the
relative youth and unreliability of
nutrition science just adds to the
confusion fats are a perfect example in
the 80s scientists associated the
saturated fats and butter and cream with
heart disease causing consumers to
switch to margarine shortly when
scientists later concluded the trans
fats in those alternatives were more
dangerous people started avoiding fats
altogether resulting in the low and
nonfat dietary trend in the 90s that led
many to increase their carbohydrates and
sugars which experts say helped cause
the obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemic
in America still the connection between
dietary fats and disease is far from
settled
that's because nutrition science relies
on observational studies which can't
definitively connect the cause and
effect so for example all of these come
from observational studies the problem
is it's impossible to know for sure if
these connections are real because so
many factors can affect the outcome now
here's the argument the 2016 nutritional
guidelines won praise for being very
specific about what you should be eating
like vegetables and whole grains but
they were criticized for keeping the
what not to eat section a vague list of
nutrients for example instead of saying
avoid soda they say to avoid excess
sugar once again critics say food
lobbyists are to blame
at 204 pages many say the guidelines on
what to eat are simply too long too
complicated and too influenced by
outside forces some nutrition experts
think the US should just keep it simple
eat in moderation lots of fruit and
vegetables and go easy on the salt and
sugar