The new federal dietary guidelines have been submitted for approval. Salt and alcohol are still bad for you but fortunately sugar is still A-okay!

The recommendations included noncontroversial language advising consumers to choose their fats and carbohydrates "wisely" and to limit salt and alcohol.

The experts stopped short of directly urging Americans to cut down on soft drinks, cakes, cookies, pies, candy and other sugar-filled food, saying more research was necessary.

Record numbers of kids are clinically obese and up to two thirds of adults are overweight to some degree or another. Diabetes rates have skyrocketed, riding in tandem with soft drink sales. More research is necessary to see if eating junk food contributes to weight gain?

Consumer groups had hoped the panel would bluntly recommend that Americans limit their consumption of soft drinks and other sugary foods, a view sharply opposed by beverage makers and the sugar industry, who say weight gain is due to many factors.

Sure it's due to many factors. One of the biggest is what you're eating. That's the whole purpose of the bloody federal dietary guidelines. But oh, beware the sugar barons. We must not offend the grand sweet lobby by plainly stating that the monstrous overconsumption of refined sugar by the American people is linked to their massive collective weight problem.

Soft drink makers and the sugar industry contend it is unfair to link diabetes to soft drink consumption. They said an unhealthy lifestyle, not a particular food or beverage, increased an individual's risk of developing diabetes.

Bull. Shit. The single biggest factor in adult onset diabetes is consistently high blood sugar. Nothing makes that happen like refined sugar. Soft drinks are the ultimate delivery vehicle for refined sugar.

"The concept of sugars being in unhealthy foods or only being in foods that you should eat in moderation is kind of misleading. There is sugar in a lot of healthy foods," Cheryl Digges, director of public policy for the Sugar Association.

Also bullshit. Peaches have a goodly amount of sugar in them but that sugar is fructose, not added refined white sugar. There is a big difference between biting into some fresh fruit and snarfing down fruit salad in syrup. Just because some healthy foods have sugar does not mean sugar is good for you, especially not in the high concentrations found in our snack foods, deserts and beverages.

Consumer groups have expressed concern in the past that the USDA, which promotes agricultural products, has a major role in developing federal dietary guidelines.

Last year, they requested the government remove seven of the 13 panel members because of their close ties to the food industry. None of them were removed.

This is the equivalent of putting representatives from Phillip Morris in charge of the Surgeon General's Office. Politics as usual.

Campaign promise: All of these people will get axed when the Flying Pig party takes office.