Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 10/17/16


A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit animal activist group that alleged too much food industry influence on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC).

In a complaint filed in January, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine alleged that USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services allowed the food industry to dictate the DGAC recommendations on cholesterol.

At issue was whether DGAC members were influenced in their recommendations by egg industry-funded research and other ties members might have had with the industry.

The court ruled there are no guidelines for determining how much industry influence is too much. As a result, the Physicians Committee’s complaint was deemed “non-justiciable” and dismissed, according to the group.

The committee reported in February 2015 that cholesterol is no longer “a nutrient of concern for overconsumption” and that “available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol.”

Ultimately, however, the final Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in January 2016, called on Americans to eat as little cholesterol as possible.

“Even so, the dismissal of the Physicians Committee’s court case means there are no clear limits as to the food industry’s role in future nutrition policy decisions,” the group complained in posting on its website.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is an activist group that promotes a vegan diet. Many of its members are not physicians.

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