 Why do we care what the federal dietary guidelines say? Well, the guidelines do direct how billions of dollars are spent in programs like the school lunch program, breakfast program, food stamps, WIC. More importantly, though, is their potential, their wasted potential, to turn this country's health around. After World War II, Finland joined us in packing on the meat, eggs, and dairy. By the 1970s, the mortality rate from heart disease of Finnish men was the highest in the world. They didn't want to die, so they got serious. Heart disease is caused by high cholesterol. High cholesterol is caused by high saturated fat intake. So the main focus of the strategy was to reduce the high saturated fat intake. So that means basically, you know, cheese and chicken, cake and pork. So, a berry project was launched to help dairy farmers make a switch to berry farming. Whatever it took. And indeed, many farmers did switch from dairies to berries. They pitted villages against each other in friendly, cholesterol-lowering competitions to see you could do the best for prizes. So, how'd they do? On a population scale, look, even if mortality rates drop 5%, you can still save thousands of lives. But remarkably, great changes took place. An 80% drop in cardiac mortality across the entire country, with greatly reduced cardiovascular and cancer mortality. The all-cause mortality was reduced about 45%, leading to greater life expectancy, approximately seven years for men and six years for women. That's what real dietary guidance can do. Now vying for the world record heart disease death rates? The United States of America.