64 Joel Fuhrman, M.D.include the ketchup and the bun, we can accurately state that it is
only 18 percent fat (over 80 percent fat-free). However, as a per-
centage of calories it is 54 percent fat, and the hamburger patty alone
is 68 percent fat. McDonald's McLean burger was advertised a few
years back as 91 percent fat-free using the same numbers trick, when
in fact 49 percent of its calories came from fat.
Likewise, so-called low-fat 2 percent milk is not really 2 percent
fat. Thirty-five percent of its calories come from fat. They can call it 98percent fat-free (by weight) only because of its water content. Low-fat
milk is not a low-fat product at all, and neither are low-fat cheeses and
other low-fat animal foods when you recalculate their fat on a per
calorie percentage basis. This is just a sad trick played on Americans.
Incidentally, 49 percent of the calories in whole milk come from fat.
Using weight instead of calories in nutrient-analysis tables has
evolved into a ploy to hide how nutritionally unsound many foods
are. The role of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was orig-
inally to promote the products of the animal agriculture industry.^19
Over fifty years ago, the USDA began promoting the so-called four
basic food groups, with meat and dairy products in the number one
and two spots on the list. Financed by the meat and dairy industry
and backed by nutritional scientists on the payroll of the meat and
dairy industry, this promotion ignored science.^20
This program could be more accurately labeled "the four food
myths." It was taught in every classroom in America, with posters
The U.S. Department of Meat, Milk, and Cheese