Nutrition is a very controversial and confusing topic. One day coffee is bad for you, but the next day it's good for you. One day alcohol is harmful to our health, but the next day red wine is the elixir of life. There are dozens of diet plans and they promise a slimmer, healthier body. There is the 3 Hour Diet which involves constantly eating small portions of everything we want to eat. The latest diet craze, the Paleo diet, is based on eating foods that our “hunter-gatherer ancestors” would have thrived on during the Paleolithic era. And there's the blood type diet, the South Beach diet, the macrobiotic diet, the Mediterranean diet, and the list goes on. But who and what should we believe? Well, there is an optimal diet for humans, and the answer may surprise many. Since 1916, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (the government agency responsible for all U.S. agriculture, food, and livestock policy) has revised its recommendations several times. Unfortunately, the money talk and USDA recommendations are based on outdated scientific data and are influenced by people with economic interests. Even so, his recommendations are considered almost “holy” by doctors, nutritionists and dieters, but in reality they are the root cause of the problem. Just one visit to our local public school cafeteria and it will become clear that they do not have the children's best interests at heart. What they feed our innocent children is absurd. Doctors, the people we trust and expect to be “the experts,” don't know much about nutrition. The vast majority of medical schools in the United States require only 25 to 30 hours or less of nutrition training, and some do not require it at all. So doctors have to rely on the... middle of the paper... calpel). Works Cited Campbell II, Thomas M. and T. Collin Campbell. “The breadth of evidence for a whole-food, plant-based diet: Part II: Malignant tumors and inflammatory diseases.” Primary Care Reports 18.3 (2012): 25-35. Academic research completed. Network. November 25, 2013.Campbell II, Thomas M. and T. Collin Campbell. “The breadth of evidence for a whole-food, plant-based diet: Part I: Metabolic diseases and diseases of aging.” Primary Care Reports 18.2 (2012): 13-23. Academic research completed. Network. November 25, 2013.Gulli, Cathy. "The Secrets of Longevity". Maclean's 121.20/21 (2008): 60-62. Master FILE Elite. Network. November 25, 2013.Tarver, Toni. "The food remedy for chronic diseases". Food Technology 66.10 (2012): 23-31. Academic research completed. Network. 24 November 2013. The Holy Bible, new international version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan House, 1984. Print.