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The Federal Government, meanwhile, is moving in several directions. The Food and Drug Administration is preparing guidelines suggesting nutritional labeling of frozen convenience foods, such as TV dinners, and proposing regulations for the labeling of vitamin contents according to recommended rather than minimum daily requirements and the identification of sources and types of fats used in processed foods. It is also planning to place more stringent regulations upon the sale of vitamins. Recognizing that the safety and effectiveness of large doses have yet to be determined, the F.D.A. is planning to classify as drugs all vitamin preparations that contain more than 150% of the recommended daily requirement.
Because they involve the vital interests of the nation's food and drug industries, some of these proposed regulations have met with long and bitter debate in hearings over a two-year period. But Americans need not wait until all the arguments have been settled before they temper their diets. Physicians are already beginning to prescribe a more sensible approach to eating. Doctors to both Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson put their patients on strict low-fat diets and urged them, not always successfully, to get more exercise.
Many doctors interviewed by TIME have decided to follow such diets themselves in the interests of both health and weight control. Cornell's Latham limits his intake of saturated fats by trimming his meat carefully and passing up butter for margarine. He cuts down on sugar and eats only two or three eggs a week. Dr. Richard Rivlin of Columbia also watches his fat intake, eats lots of salads and fresh fruit. Columbia's Dr. Frank Smith not only follows a lowfat, low-cholesterol diet but exercises at least twice a week. Americans interested in avoiding the hazards of the desk and dining table would do well to follow a similar regimen.