Judge Rejects Challenge to Dietary Food Pyramid

WASHINGTON (CN) - A nonprofit public health group cannot force the federal government to replace is MyPyramid food diagram with a so-called Power Plate of dietary guidelines, a federal judge ruled.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine sued the secretaries of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services for not responding to their petition to change the official food diagram, but U.S. District Judge Richard Leon dismissed the complaint this week for failure to state an injury.

The group also claimed that the new dietary guidelines failed to identify foods that consumers should eat less often, like meats and cheeses.

"Plaintiff, which recommends a plant-based diet, contends that defendants' failure to reflect the preponderance of current scientific and medical knowledge by promoting meat and dairy products 'interfere[s] with the efforts of [plaintiff] ... to improve the health and well-being of Americans and combat the epidemics of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other conditions to food choices,'" according to the Dec. 12 decision, which was made public on Dec. 14. "Plaintiff fails to provide any support, however, for this alleged injury, which is based in whole on conjecture and speculation."

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