Here’s an excerpt from the latest Washington Examiner piece by Market Institute President Charles Sauer.

After some bureaucrats decided that strip clubs can be open while schools can’t and that bars and restaurants can be open although churches can’t, unelected bureaucrats are now contemplating changing the definition of “moderate drinking” for men from two drinks to one. I don’t know if this government intervention is worth taking up our pitchforks and storming the Capitol over, but it at least makes it extremely clear that our government is taking its role as a nanny state seriously. The hard part is stopping this overreach.

Let’s take a closer look at this proposed change to see just how severe the problem is.

Every five years, the Department of Health and Human Services publishes new dietary guidelines. With the next update due in December, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has published its recommendations. Ever since the introduction of guidelines in 1980, the committee has been tasked with providing “science-based advice to promote health, reduce risk of diet-related chronic diseases, and meet nutrient needs.” In fact, the committee claims to have looked at 270,000 articles, 1,500 primary research articles included in 33 original systematic reviews, 16 existing Nutrition Evidence Systematic Review reports, and conducted more than 155 analyses of federal data sets.

But for whatever reason, the committee chose to ignore this wide data set that interfered with its nanny state aims.

As was pointed out by the editors at RealClearHealth, “They had access to over 60 studies. But when explaining their break from precedent, it could only produce one that showed any negative correlation with men having two drinks [a day] versus one.”

That doesn’t sound like science. That sounds like a hit job.

Read the piece in full by heading over to Washington Examiner by clicking here.

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