Authorities Join the Unrefined Plant Pood Bandwagon

After years of examining the accumulating evidence, eight top health organizations joined forces and agreed  to encourage Americans to eat more unrefined plant food and less food from animal sources, as revealed  in  the  new  dietary  guidelines published  in  the July 27,

1999, Journal of the American Heart Association.
These authorities are the Nutrition Committee of the American Heart Association, the Amer-ican Cancer Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Coun­ cil on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young, the Council on Epidemiol­ ogy and Prevention, the American Dietetic Association, the Division of Nutrition Research of the National Institutes of Health, and the American Society for Clinical Nutrition. Their unified guidelines are a giant step in the right direction. Their aim is to offer protection against the major chronic diseases in America,  including heart disease and cancer.  "The emphasis is on eating a variety of foods, mostly fruits and vegetables, with very lit­ tle simple sugar or high-fat foods, especially animal foods," said Abby Bloch, Ph.D., R.D., chair of the American Cancer Society. Based on a culmination of years of research,  these  health experts'  conclusion was that animal-source foods, with their high levels of saturated fat, are one of the leading causes of heart disease, cancer, strokes, dia­ betes, obesity, etc. — all the major chronic diseases that cost 1.4 mil­ lion  Americans their lives each year  (more than two-thirds of all

deaths in the United States).