000131 Group Files to Block New U.S. Dietary Guidelines

Washington - Saying that the meat and dairy industries have had too much influence on new dietary guidelines for 2000, a health lobbying group said it had asked a court for a preliminary injunction blocking their release.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which advocates a vegetarian diet, filed a motion in U.S. District Court on Wednesday night seeking to block the release of a government panel's recommendations on official dietary guidelines.

The group said a hearing on the motion had been scheduled for Jan. 28. The court denied a request for a temporary restraining order against the release of the report.

An advisory panel appointed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is working to update the guidelines, which are expected to be issued by May.

A draft technical report by the panel is expected to be issued by the end of January, a USDA spokeswoman said.

“We are saying that more than half the committee is made up of members who have meat, dairy and egg industry ties,” Mindy Kursban, staff lawyer for PCRM, said in a telephone interview. “This should be a scientific committee and not a committee that represents the food industry.”

DIETARY GUIDELINES USED WIDELY

The current dietary and health recommendations, adopted in 1980, are widely used by doctors, nutritionists and food makers. They are the basis of the well- known USDA food pyramid used to teach children healthy eating habits.

The USDA reimburses schools for meals only if they follow the recommendations, which means elementary schoolchildren need a note from a doctor to get, for instance, soy milk instead of dairy milk. The guidelines also affect food stamp recipients and other forms of government food aid.

The working draft, which is subject to change, again endorses milk and dairy products as a key source of calcium, instead of giving equal weight to leafy green vegetables, beans and calcium-fortified fruit juice, the PCRM says.

“The guidelines currently favor meat and dairy products, despite growing evidence of health risks associated with these products,” the group said in a statement.

“It seems to us that their recommendations are going to be just as bad as (they) always were,” Simon Chaitowitz, a spokeswoman for the PCRM, said in a telephone interview.

“They are still not discussing animal product consumption despite all the evidence showing the hazards of meat consumption,” she added.

In December the nonprofit advocacy group, which includes 5,000 doctors, sued the USDA claiming that special health needs of minority Americans were being ignored in the guidelines.

The group says about 90% of Asians, 70% of blacks and Native Americans, and 15% of whites have difficulty digesting lactose.

The PCRM says the guidelines are racially biased. Chaitowitz said the new draft guidelines have not been adjusted.

“They still do not address the racial bias,” she said. “It is not fair to tell all Americans, many of whom are lactose intolerant, that they have to have dairy to be healthy.”

The USDA denies the panel is biased and says it has considered all points of view, including the PCRM's.

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