The Dietary Guidelines & The Law

The newest version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2020-2025) was recently published by the United States Department of Agriculture. The first edition of the Guidelines was published in 1980, and this current 2020 version marks the ninth edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. I was shocked to learn that the dietary guidelines are required by law to be published every five years!

Who knew? Not me!

Title III of the National Nutritional Monitoring and Related Research Act of 1990 was signed into law on October 22, 1990 and requires “At least every five years the Secretaries shall publish a report entitled “Dietary Guidelines for Americans”. Each such report shall contain nutritional and dietary information and guidelines for the general public, and shall be promoted by each Federal agency in carrying out any Federal food, nutrition, or health program. Basis of Guidelines - The information and guidelines contained in each report required under paragraph shall be based on the preponderance of the scientific and medical knowledge which is current at the time the report is prepared.” (1)

That’s a law I can get behind.

Just Who are the Guidelines Written For Anyway?

Up until recently, I thought the dietary guidelines were written for the regular Janes and Joes of America - meaning, for us, the individuals. But in fact, they are written for the policymakers and professionals. Specifically, the Dietary Guidelines:

is designed for policymakers and nutrition and health professionals to help all individuals and their families consume a healthy, nutritionally adequate diet. The information in the Dietary Guidelines is used to develop, implement, and evaluate Federal food, nutrition, and health policies and programs. It also is the basis for Federal nutrition education materials designed for the public and for the nutrition education components of USDA and HHS nutrition programs. State and local governments, schools, the food industry, other businesses, community groups, and media also use Dietary Guidelines information to develop programs, policies, and communication for the general public. (2)

Read that passage again.

The dietary guidelines inform Federal food programs, state and local policies, and the private sector. The following Federal food assistance programs are affected by the guidelines:

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Keep these programs in mind when we go over some of the new and exciting additions to this year’s guidelines!

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The Science Behind the Guidelines

As you read above, the dietary guidelines are required by law to be based on scientific or medical research. So every 5 years, a scientific advisory committee convenes to conduct an independent scientific review of current nutrition science, conduct a “review of topics and questions requested by the Departments of Agriculture and of Health and Human Services,” and make recommendations to the United States Department of Agriculture (3). By providing “topics and questions,” the government has a hand in guiding and prioritizing the findings of the scientific committee. And the government has a final say about what is published. And yet, it is most likely that the Guidelines are more read and distributed than the scientific document that guides them. . . so let’s dig into a couple of the major differences between the scientific document and the published guidelines! !

The Scientific Report of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee weighs in at a hefty 835 pages! Whereas the published dietary guidelines weigh in at a much lighter 164 pages.

The Scientific Report presented five major considerations for updating the dietary guidelines. A summary of those considerations is below, but you can find the original version on Page 4 of Part B: Chapter 2 “Integrating the Evidence” which is on page 43 of the entire document. The guidance below are overarching and are to be integrated with other specific recommendations provided in individual chapters of the document.

“Follow a healthy eating pattern across the lifespan” - This guideline introduces the importance of eating healthy over your entire lifetime, and the life stages “include pregnancy and lactation, birth to age 24 months, children ages 2 years and older, adolescents, and adults.” This will be the first Dietary Guidelines that include recommendations for persons under 2 years of age. Think how important this is for our Federal food programs that are directed specifically at infants and children. This will also be the first time that recommendations are provided specifically for women who are pregnant or lactating. Did you, like me, assume that these life stages were already included in all prior guidelines?
“Focus on variety, nutrient density, and amount” - This follows existing smart dietary principles. Eat a variety of healthy foods. Choose foods that are high in nutrients vs foods that are full of empty calories. Eat reasonably sized portions. And, be aware of the “frequency of eating.” (The advisory committee found that eating 3 meals a day vs 2 was correlated with healthier diet patterns, and that late night eating often involved food types that should be eaten in moderation (higher fat/higher sugar foods). However, the report clarifies, “ . . the available evidence for many questions was insufficient to form conclusion statements, highlighting the critical need for additional research.”
“Limit calories from added sugars and saturated fats and reduce sodium intake” - Specifically, the committee recommended reducing intake of added sugars from 10% to 6%: “After considering the scientific evidence for the potential health impacts of added sugars intake, along with findings from model-based estimations of energy available in the dietary pattern after meeting nutrient requirements, the Committee suggests that less than 6 percent of energy from added sugars is more consistent with a dietary pattern that is nutritionally adequate while avoiding excess energy intake from added sugars than is a pattern with less than 10 percent energy from added sugars.” Additionally, the committee recommended that sugar sweetened beverages be restricted from the diets of all children under 2 years of age.
“Shift to healthier food and beverage choices” - Shifting to healthier choices means choosing beverages that have nutritional value rather than just the empty calories of sugar sweetened juices, soft drinks, etc. Further, the committee specifically recommended an update to the guidelines regarding alcohol consumption where instead of men being allowed 2 drinks per day, and women being allowed 1 drink per day, both men and women are recommended to limit consumption to only 1 alcoholic beverage per day.
“Support healthy eating patterns for all” - Expand food access to all across race, cultures, and socioeconomic status, and support breastfeeding for all.

The New Guidelines

If you read the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2020-2025) you will notice a few of the science backed recommendations were accepted and integrated, specifically focusing on dietary patterns vs individual nutrients, including all life stages, focusing on nutrient density, variety, and amount, and supporting healthy eating patterns for all.

However, a couple specific recommendations were not integrated into the new guidelines:

the recommendation regarding reducing intake of added sugars from 10% of energy (caloric) intake to 6% percent, and
the recommendation to reduce the amount of alcohol from 2 drinks a day to 1 drink a day for men.

While the Guidelines recommend lowering and limiting added sugars and alcohol, they avoided actually reducing the quantifiable amounts.

QUESTIONS!

Why would these recommendations not be accepted?

How must the scientists on the committee have felt about being ignored?

And what does this mean for our Federal food assistance programs that feed our children most in need?

And how does this jive, if at all, with the recommendation to support healthy eating for all?

I don’t have answers to any of these questions. But if you want to upgrade your lifestyle based on science, then reduce your alcohol consumption to 1 drink a day and reduce your added sugars to no more than 6% of your total daily caloric intake!

The Most Important Numbers of All

Per the Scientific Report

Seventy percent (70%): “More than 70 percent of American adults are overweight or obese and the prevalence of severe obesity has increased over the past two decades. The Committee included evidence from studies that included people with overweight and obesity to reflect this reality of our current population.”
Forty-one percent (41%): “Among children ages 2 to 19 years, 41 percent of children are overweight or obese”
Six in ten (6 in 10): “statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that 6 in 10 American adults have a chronic disease”
Four in ten (4 in 10): “4 in 10 have 2 or more disease conditions.”

We, as a population, have grown fatter nearly every year since the first Dietary Guidelines were published in 1980. Let’s reverse that. Start today by trying to follow just one of the 5 overarching recommendations from the Advisory Committee. And consider reading through the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2020-2025). Overall it is a solid document with a lot of photos like these!