LBJ and Cholesterol

Kinda interesting story about the genesis of the (now proven idiotic) cholesterol scare.  Doesn't surprise me in the least, even though the sourcing remains anonymous.  There's a larger lesson ending this post.

...LBJ wanted the support of the egg and dairy farming industry. Being from Texas, he felt it would look very bad if did not get the support of this significantly large portion of the farming industry. But the egg and dairy farmers, for various reasons, balked. They would not throw their support behind LBJ. Well, Johnson was furious. So, he courted and won the support of the grain farmers. But that was not all. After the election he wanted revenge on the egg and dairy farmers, and he wanted to reward the grain farmers for supporting him.

This is where things get downright spooky, but I can vouch for its truth. Johnson decided that he and his administration would issue a new concept — a “food pyramid” that would “help” children and their parents make good food choices, not to mention those who are older and suffering from various maladies. The problem for the milk and egg industry is that the pyramid recommended that citizens severely restrict their intake of dairy products, particularly eggs. But to the delight of the grain farmers, the pyramid recommended a dramatic increase in the consumption of grain products such as bread, cereal, crackers, and the like.

Johnson leaned on his government physicians to place their stamp of approval on this scheme by claiming that if Americans ate according to the recommendations of the pyramid, they could eradicate heart disease, strokes, and other cardiovascular diseases. Soon everyone had jumped on the bandwagon....

(Quoted at Cold Fury)

Little about LBJ's pure slime surprises me.

The lesson here is not about LBJ and egg farmers.  The lesson is that ANY President (or House Speaker, or Senate Leader) can pull off something like this with relative ease, so long as we continue to blithely ignore the 9th and 10th Amendments.