Are professionals jumping the gun in the fight against chronic diseases?

The first steps in implementing a national nutrition policy of providing a food supply which meets the nutritional requirements of our population have been the periodic issuance of the Recommended Dietary Allowances. More recently, the "Dietary Goals for the United States" have been released by the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs of the U.S. Senate, developed in the belief that they would, if followed, serve as one avenue of preventing coronary heart disease. The author presents a "critique" of the Dietary Goals, including a re-examination of food consumption statistics and a summary of intervention trials in five countries in which diet or drug therapy was aimed at lowering serum cholesterol. Listed are four criteria for evaluating recommendations to the public about diet and chronic disease. Rather than making a major revision in the proportion of fat and carbohydrates in our national diet, he recommends only limitation of the overall amounts to achieve weight control for those who need it.