In This Issue:
- The Dietary Guidelines (DGA) are on track to come out by the end of 2020—what should we expect?
- Ken Berry, Maria Emmerich and many others take part in our video campaign showing how people have regained their health by ignoring the Guidelines.
- Wisconsin lawmakers wrote a letter to USDA-HHS to address concerns over saturated fat limits in the 2020 DGA.
- The Nutrition Coalition submitted its final public comments to USDA regarding the expert report by the 2020 DGA Advisory Committee.
- Take Action: Your Voice Can Still Make a Difference! (See Below)
Update on the Dietary Guidelines—What Should We Expect?
The final expert report came out in August, and officials at U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services (USDA-HHS) are now working on converting this 800+ page report into a short policy document to disseminate to the public. During this time, food companies often lobby to try to alter the outcome of the report. The Nutrition Coalition (TNC) has made an effort to make public officials aware of the lack of rigorous science in the report overall and its exclusion of large bodies of scientific evidence, including all studies on weight loss and the last decade of science on saturated fats. TNC has also emphasized how tragic it is to have a massively influential nutrition policy that focuses exclusively on healthy people—now only about 12% of our population (For more, see the public comments TNC submitted, below).
A big part of TNC’s efforts has been to get people across America to contribute their voices to this effort. We salute all of you who have done that and want to remind you that it's still possible to have your voice heard!
Video Campaign
Last month, individuals from all walks of life and all corners of the country shared success stories about how they have attained better health by eating virtually the opposite of what the DGA recommends. In an online social media campaign, Americans detailed how, after years of failed attempts to regain their health by following the Guidelines, they looked to the science to find solutions that have helped them sustainably lose weight and reverse chronic, diet-related diseases.
Here are just a few of the many Americans who have shared their stories about how they achieved better health by ignoring the Guidelines:
Ken Berry, MD: “I feel better now at 51 years of age than I felt when I was 35 and following the USDA My Plate Guidelines. So, until we can come up with some sensible guidelines that actually help people meaningfully improve their health, I say we delay these guidelines for further study.”
Maria Emmerich: “I researched what was causing my PCOS [polycystic ovarian syndrome], plus IBS [inflammatory bowel syndrome] and acid reflux--and guess what I started doing: the exact opposite of what the government guidelines told me to do. I started eating a lot of red meat and foods high in cholesterol like lobster, when I could, and butter. And I got better.”
Michael William Wood: “I have a Master’s Degree in Public Health. I followed the USDA Dietary Guidelines for 35 years and became pre-diabetic with 30 pounds of excess fat, a CAC [Coronary Calcium Score) of 514, hypertension and GERD. I urge the Congress and the USDA to stop the madness of their failed Dietary Guidelines…the [Dietary Guidelines Advisory] Committee did not review all of the relevant literature, and it was stacked with members associated with the processed food industry…”
Dan Cadmus: “I experienced several failed attempts at losing weight using the standard Dietary Guidelines. I would lose about 10-20 pounds and then gain it back within a matter of months. At that point, I really just accepted that [being overweight] as a way of life. Four years ago, I was 360 pounds and an anxiety-filled wreck. Now at age 29, I feel better than I ever have, no thanks to the Dietary Guidelines.”
Bart Simmons: “The USDA food guidelines never worked for me. They caused me grief; they caused me misery.”
Amanda Z.: “Exactly four years ago, I discovered I had type 2 diabetes…I discovered that it was actually quite easy to reverse type 2 diabetes, all you need to do is to get rid of all the food recommended by the Dietary Guidelines, so the “healthy whole grains,” the cereals, the toasts, low-fat skim milk, the vegetables oils and replace that with meat, and dairy, and fish, and eggs, and saturated fats. Within six months, my HbA1c [the measure of T2 diabetes] was under 4.2, so I was completely non-diabetic, and it’s been that way ever since for the last for years.”
Wisconsin Lawmakers Letter to USDA/HHS
On September 3, a group of Wisconsin legislators, including Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Glen Grothman (R-WI), Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and Ron Kind (D-WI), sent a letter to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue and HSS Secretary Alex Azar urging these agencies to address concerns over the Guidelines, specifically the DGA Committee’s (DGAC) failure to consider a large body of recent peer-reviewed research determining that the longstanding caps on saturated fats are not supported by robust science.
Over the last decade, a growing body of research on saturated fats has determined that the longstanding caps are not justified by science. Included in this growing body of science is a recent “State-of-the-Art Review” written by a group of leading nutrition scientists in the prestigious Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). Among the prominent authors of the paper are two former members of previous DGACs and the Chair of the 2005 DGAC.
The scientists who authored this this review also sent a letter to the Secretaries of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services about their findings.
So far, it’s been radio silence from USDA-HHS on this issue and whether they might reconsider their review of saturated fats, especially since the Subcommittee reviewing this science was one-sided and unbalanced, according to our review.
TNC Public Comments
The Nutrition Coalition submitted its public comments to USDA on the final expert report by the 2020 DGAC. The Coalition re-expressed concerns over a number of issues, including the lack of adherence to a rigorous, verified methodology for its scientific reviews, as recommended by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and ongoing concerns that the DGA focus exclusively on “healthy” Americans while ignoring the majority of Americans with diet-related chronic disease. These Guidelines therefore do not serve the “general public,” as required by law.
Read TNC’s full comments HERE.
Guidelines are Failing People of Color
A number of recent articles and op-eds have touched on the importance of nutrition in light of the impact of Covid-19, given that those with obesity, diabetes, hypertension and other diet-related conditions have far higher risks of hospitalization, intubation, and death. Minorities and underserved communities have higher rates of these diseases, and have also suffered more from Covid-19.
These articles emphasize the crucial role of the Dietary Guidelines, in driving the foods that are provided for individuals who rely on school lunches/breakfasts, food baskets for women and infant children, feeding programs for the elderly, SNAP, etc. Since the Guidelines are designed only for healthy people, they are often a mismatch for communities with high rates of chronic disease.
Dr. Linda D. Bradley, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at the Cleveland Clinic and the first African American surgeon to practice there, describe the strengths and weaknesses of the Dietary Guidelines. She notes the Guidelines do not meet basic nutrient needs. In the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Reporter Ruben Castaneda from U.S. News & World Report interviewed a collection of registered dieticians and nutritionists who all make the point that the Guidelines do not take into account the preferences or needs of communities of color and highlight the importance of the Guidelines for these communities.
Elena Rios, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Medical Association, in a recent op-ed in the San Diego Union-Tribune, argues that the Guidelines must take into account the nutritional needs of different groups, including the Latinx community and those with one or more chronic disease.
YOUR VOICE STILL MATTERS
You can still take action and urge Congress to take action to prevent the USDA-HHS from simply rolling over another flawed Dietary Guidelines that doesn’t reflect the best or most recent science.
Please take time to reach out to your member(s) of Congress to let them know you are concerned with the direction the 2020-2025 Guidelines are headed. We need Congress to push USDA-HHS to address the serious scientific concerns with the DGA as well as the urgent need for these Guidelines to address obesity, diabetes, and other diseases that are not only crippling our country but are now making us more vulnerable to Covid-19.
Please Donate
The Nutrition Coalition would be grateful for your support! Like so many others, we’ve have had to cut back during this difficult time. If you are one of the fortunate people with something to give, we hope that you might consider a donation! Reducing diet-related diseases has always been urgent, perhaps now more than ever. We believe there is still good reason to hope that we can make a difference for these 2020 Guidelines.
Get our newsletter delivered to your inbox.
The Nutrition Coalition is a nonprofit educational organization working to strengthen national nutrition policy so that it is founded upon a comprehensive body of conclusive science, and where that science is absent, to encourage additional research. We accept no money from any interested industry.