or maybe the nutrition guidelines just don't matter that much.

That's clearly true, given people by and large know what's good and bad for them but their consumption choices need to factor in a much larger set of pressing constraints like price, availability, and readiness and more abstract constraints like "am I able to be at home with my child and cook for them or do I need to work a second job to make ends meet?" I will not trust a single word from RFK's mouth until he has something to say about food deserts and prices and a plan to do something about it. Until then, he's done the easiest part which bureaucrats specialize in, which is publishing an updated set of guidelines.

I disagree I think nutrition guidence is extremely important and in the precense of horrible examples nations get really unhealthy. The only country 1st world country not to have really obese people is Japan (~5% obese ~20% overweight). (~35% obsese ~70% overweight US) and I'd wager a large part of that is the fact that kids cook for themselves in school so they learn early what a reasonable meal is. They also learn how to cook not that they do that forever but setting reasonable food expectations is extremely important.

Being obese as a kid is almost causal for being obese later in life[1] as becoming obese screws up a lot of your bodies biology permenantly. You can of course change and become healthier but many lingering symptoms linger regardless of you losing weight. While still 70% obese adults were not obese as children 80% of obese children end up being obese.

Open to other ideas but school meals and peoples relationship with food is extremely important to maintaining weight in my experience.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26696565/

> The only country 1st world country not to have really obese people is Japan (~5% obese ~20% overweight). (~35% obsese ~70% overweight US) and I'd wager a large part of that is the fact that kids cook for themselves in school so they learn early what a reasonable meal is.

There might also be a genetic factor, why japanese are less obese or overweight, because the difference for diabetes patients between US and japan is a lot smaller.

There is no genetic factor because when Japanese people move to the States they are as obese as america's within 2 generation. I want to find the study but I think they end up being physically lighter because of other factors but are just as obese or overweight as americas[1]. The reasoning from the paper is that Japanese 2nd generation adopted western cultures eating habits

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7610102/

We've just spent years being told to trust the experts the government supports, and ignore anything that contradicts the official narrative, including other experts.

It's a good observation, and one I don't think is widely enough appreciated among modern post-COVID, pro-censorship liberals.

Trust primarily by virtue of authority is a bad quality to inculcate in a populace.

Yes, any alternative epistemological basis means you have to deal with Aunt Glenda or Uncle Roy who didn't graduate high school being convinced they're smarter than 'those scientists'.

But we're sliding dangerously close to outsourcing common sense, and the solution isn't encouraging more prostration to expert authority.

It's developing more widespread reasoning from first principles (coupled with curiosity and self-awareness of ones own intellectual limitations).

Common sense is basically completely useless for anything modestly complicated, and Americans are worse than ever at discerning the truth.