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To the editor:

I urge you to be part of the solution, and not perpetuate the problem.

The American dietary guidelines have failed me and my family severely. They are dead wrong and have led to poor health and in some cases, premature death to members of my family.

I, personally, have lost 145 pounds by setting aside the U.S. dietary guidelines and eating a low carb diet and excluding all “vegetable” or seed oils from my diet over the last year and a half.

My blood sugars were high, I had pain in my joints, had difficulty walking and climbing stairs, and was out of breath whenever I walked.

Within weeks of changing my diet, I began to feel considerably healthier. My blood sugar was 5.3, and my cholesterol numbers are all in a healthy range. This with a high animal fat, low seed oil diet. I eat fresh vegetables and fatty meat.

My children were all becoming obese on the dietary guidelines. This has to change. Animal fats are necessary for healthy brain function.

There are a multitude of studies showing the extensive harm to health caused by seed oils, commonly referred to as vegetable oils. They cause inflammation, heart disease, liver problems and more. The body cannot use these like it can animal fats.

Please, for the health of our nation and for future generations, intervene and make sure your own children and grandchildren get the best nutrition possible.

I am writing to urge you to call on the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services (USDA-HHS) to postpone publication of the report by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, so that the federal agencies in charge can have time to address serious allegations by one or more members of this committee about the process that produces the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. These allegations, which recently come to light in a letter submitted by The Nutrition Coalition, detail serious flaws in the process and imply that the very reliability of our federal nutrition recommendations is in question.

With 60 percent of Americans diagnosed with one or more chronic illnesses, conditions which increase the risk for severe outcomes and death from COVID-19, the United States now more than ever needs evidence-based advice on how to maintain and restore our metabolic health. The guidelines to date have self-evidently been unable to flatten the curve on the rates of these diet-related diseases.

Please urge USDA-HHS to delay the release of the committee’s expert report to provide time to thoroughly investigate these allegations.

Jeanette Lohr

Chesapeake