The Nutrition Coalition (TNC), together with the Society for Metabolic Health Practitioners (SMHP), today submitted a proposal to the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
The joint letter asked for conference organizers to promote the availability and awareness of carbohydrate restriction as a powerful nutritional approach to reverse chronic, diet-related diseases. The main proposal submitted asked that a low-carbohydrate option be included as one option in the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A secondary proposal requested subsidies for the distribution of Continuous Glucose Monitors to any individual diagnosed with symptoms of metabolic syndrome.
The Dietary Guidelines process has actively excluded and ignored the large and fast-growing body of scientific on low-carbohydrate diets, as documented in this column by TNC founder Nina Teicholz. She describes, for example, how Harvard nutrition professor Frank Hu protested about the treatment of this science during the 2015 guidelines process and wrote, in an email,“I was wondering if we should have a separate section on low-carb diets rather than burying it…”
The evidence for a low-carbohydrate approach in combatting metabolic diseases, including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease has grown steadily over the past two decades and now comprises more than 1,000 clinical trials. The TNC-SMHP joint letter cited a peer-reviewed article in Nutrients, whose authors include the medical director of Harvard’s Joslin Diabetes Center, the Chair of the 2005 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, and TNC ‘s founder, Nina Teicholz, making the case that a low-carbohydrate diet is supported by sufficient science to be included among the choices recommended by the guidelines.
The scientific reviews proposed for the next iteration of the Dietary Guidelines, due out in 20205, did not include the science on low-carbohydrate diets. Some 77% of the public comments on this process asked for the low-carb science to be considered. The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, which co-issue the guidelines, have not announced their final decision on this matter.
“Our members are disappointed that to date, the Dietary Guidelines process has not recognized the large body of scientific literature on low-carbohydrate diets, clearly establishing this nutritional approach as one viable option for population-wide guidelines,” wrote Teicholz and Doug Reynolds, President of SMHP.
Teicholz and Reynolds received no acknowledgment of their formal submission and were not invited to participate in the conference.
For more reading, see an op-ed about the conference written by Teicholz, published in April, entitled, “Solve Nutrition Insecurity, but Not With Donuts.”