Newsletter Update | November 2020
FEATURED
Nutrition Coalition Asks for A Warning Label on next Dietary Guidelines: “For Healthy Americans ONLY.”
BMJ on Former Guidelines' Committee Members Calling For End to Sat Fats Caps
Analysis of 2020 Guidelines Process Finds Science Drawn Mostly from White Populations
Limited Screening! Don't miss seeing this excellent film: Sacred Cow, on how “better meat” can help the environment
- Nutrition Coalition Asks for A Warning Label on next Dietary Guidelines: “For Healthy Americans ONLY.”
- BMJ on Former Guidelines' Committee Members Calling For End to Sat Fats Caps
- Analysis of 2020 Guidelines Process Finds Science Drawn Mostly from White Populations
- Limited Screening! Don't miss seeing this excellent film: Sacred Cow, on how “better meat” can help the environment
Dietary Guidelines Needs a Warning Label: "For Healthy Americans Only"
In anticipation of the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) being released before the end of the year, The Nutrition Coalition recently wrote a letter to the Secretaries of the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services (USDA-HHS) asking them to include a prominent warning label on the upcoming DGA to make clear that the recommendations are "For Healthy Americans Only.”
The DGA has long limited its advice to be for "prevention only” and not for the treatment of chronic diseases. This means that, during the 2020 DGA process, the science on disease treatment was simply not reviewed. Further, the 2020 DGA Advisory Committee made the decision to exclude all studies on weight loss,[1] even though historically, one of the Guidelines’ principal goals has been to help people “reach and maintain a healthy weight.”[2]
The implication is that for the 60% of Americans diagnosed with diet-related chronic diseases, including the 42.4% of the adults with obesity, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines are not for them.[3]
Many people understand that a diet for a healthy person is not the same as one for someone whose metabolism has tipped into ill-health. The DGA’s guidance to consume six servings of grains per day, including three servings of refined grains, plus up to 10% of calories as sugar, cannot be tolerated by a person with diabetes, for example. Unhealthy Americans need to know that the Guidelines provide inappropriate advice for their conditions.
Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death and disability in the U.S., costing $3.5 trillion annually. Obesity alone accounts for nearly 21% of all annual medical spending in the U.S.
The fact that the Guidelines have not reviewed nutrition science for treating disease is especially problematic given our current battle with Covid-19. Diet-related diseases, including obesity, diabetes and hypertension, have consistently shown to dramatically increase the risk of complications for Covid-19, including higher rates of hospitalization and death.[4] People with these diseases urgently need to receive dietary advice appropriate for their conditions.
To support these efforts, click this link HERE. This is our last effort—the last time we will be asking for you to lend your voice. Despite our efforts, we realize now that we cannot change the DGA to reflect the best and most current science, but we can at least try to restrict their overreach. Read more and speak up, one last time.
BMJ: US nutritionists call for dietary guideline limits on saturated fat intake to be lifted
An article published in the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) highlights an important letter from leading nutritionists, including three former members of previous Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committees (DGACs), including the Chair of the 2005 DGAC, calling on members of Congress to “urgently rethink” the 2020 DGA, in particular the caps on saturated fats—currently limited to 10% of calories. The scientists' letter to Congress points out that “there is no strong scientific evidence that the current population-wide upper limits on commonly consumed saturated fats in the US will prevent cardiovascular disease or reduce mortality. A continued limit on these fats is not justified.” This letter is based on a paper, by the same authors, called a “State of the Art Review” on saturated fats, recently published in the prestigious Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The letter itself can be viewed here.
Analysis Shows Science Behind Guidelines Does Not Take into Consideration Race, Ethnicity, and/or Socio/Economic Status. Most Studies on White, Middle-Class Populations
A recent in-depth analysis by the Food4Health Alliance shows that more than 90% of the 56 systematic reviews with significant findings in the Scientific Report by the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee did not account for race, ethnicity, and/or socio-economic status. Moreover, they relied on predominantly white populations, which are questionably generalizable to the broader US population.
Congress intended for the Dietary Guidelines to be for the “general public,” yet today, the public is more than one quarter (26%) non-white, including nearly 13% black/African American and 17.6% Hispanic/Latinx. These populations have seldom been included or accounted for in the studies reviewed in the 2020 DGA report.
The disturbing implication is that the 2020-2025 DGA will be questionably appropriate for historically disadvantaged populations.
Exclusive Film Preview: Sacred Cow, a pivotal food and environment film will be available for a limited time
Filmmaker, dietician, and writer Diana Rodgers has been working for years to get the word out about the importance of sustainability when it comes to diet, and she has just finished her book and documentary film, both entitled Sacred Cow, that addresses this complex, yet critically important topic.
Beef is framed as the most environmentally destructive and least healthy of foods, but while many argue in favor of greatly reducing, or even eliminating meat from our diets, Sacred Cow takes a critical look at the assumptions and information presented about meat.
Sacred Cow will be available for viewing for a limited time from November 22 through November 30. Simply head over to this page, enter your email, and you’ll be set to receive the film in your inbox on the 22nd.
Biden USDA Transition Team Announced
We don’t know many of the people on this list, yet we are hopeful given that the administration-elect has pledged itself to elevating the importance of good science.
That said, we note the participation of the Good Food Institute, based in Berkeley, CA, a group that works extensively with industries developing meat alternatives.
We also note the presence of Deb Eschmeyer, who led Michelle Obama's successful efforts to eliminate whole and 2% milk from the National School Lunch Program as well as require low-salt meals for children.
YOUR VOICE MATTERS. ONE LAST CHANCE TO TAKE ACTION!
There are only a few short weeks before we expect the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) to be released. It is therefore our last opportunity to act--and the LAST TIME we will be asking you to take action.
Our final request is to Congress—to ask that the 2020-2025 Guidelines carry a prominent warning label, to let people know that the Guidelines are “For Healthy Americans Only.”
Your voices have been critically important throughout this process, and we’ve clearly had an impact. Members of Congress have written letters to the USDA-HHS asking for changes to the Guidelines, to improve methodological rigor and to revisit the caps on saturated fats. Due to our efforts, many members of Congress are now aware of the problems with the Guidelines, and this will bode well for the future. Together, we’ve made it impossible for Congress to pretend that the Guidelines comprehensively reflect the best and most current science—or that this policy applies to all Americans.
We know now that we can't fix the 2020 Guidelines. But we can urge Congress to restrain the DGA's reach. Thank you again for you continued support and action on this critically important issue. We are so grateful for your efforts. Please join us in one last push to reform the DGA.
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.
Footnotes:
Public meeting of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, March 23, 2020, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a4d5666bff20053c65b7ff2/t/5e73d18616772f0fd8940644/1584648584430/March+12%2 C+2020+-+Afternoon+Session+-+2020+Dietary+Guidelines+Advisory+Committee+Public+Meeting.pdf, Minute 29:16
https://health.gov/our-work/food-nutrition/about-dietary-guidelines, Accessed, Oct 15, 2020.
https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/infographic/chronic-diseases.htm
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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.
Newsletter Update | September 2020
FEATURED
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!
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.
Newsletter Update | July 2020
FEATURED
TweetStorm to #DelaytheDGA on July 7 led to 5500+ tweets in just a few hours
Another paper rejects low-saturated-fat diet for heart-disease prevention
New book on red meat: Sacred Cow
Take Action: Your Voice Needed! (See Below)
In This Issue:
- TweetStorm to #DelaytheDGA on July 7 led to 5500+ tweets in just a few hours
- Another paper rejects low-saturated-fat diet for heart-disease prevention
- New book on red meat: Sacred Cow
- Take Action: Your Voice Needed! (See Below)
TweetStorm
On July 7, nutrition groups, doctors, and grassroots citizens joined in a TweetStorm to urge a delay in the expert report for the Dietary Guidelines, until major concerns have been addressed. These concerns are: the exclusion of large bodies of science, such as all studies on weight loss, the exclusion of virtually all low-carb studies, and the exclusion of all recent studies and reviews on saturated fats. Also, the USDA continues to use its “black box” methodology that does not explain how its experts are evaluating or grading the science—effectively making their reviews unable to replicate (Replication is a hallmark of good science). The expert report is due out this week.
And perhaps most importantly, the Dietary Guidelines continue to be designed only for “healthy Americans,” thereby excluding the 60% of the population with one or more diet-related chronic disease.
Within just a few hours, the TweetStorm generated overwhelming engagement, with more than 5,700 posts, reaching more than 1.6 million people and generating nearly 5.8 million impressions.
Here are just a few of the posts:
More Evidence that Lowering Saturated Fats Does Not Fight Heart Disease
Following upon the groundbreaking “State of the Art” Review on saturated fats published in the highly influential Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) came a review last week, by another international group of ten experts on heart disease and diet, including five cardiologists, in the prestigious BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. These experts challenged the idea that a diet low in saturated fat is an ‘evidence-based’ recommendation for people with extremely high cholesterol—a condition called familial hypercholesterolemia (FH).
These papers add to the nearly 20 review papers, published over the past decade, almost all of which conclude that saturated fats have no effect on cardiovascular or total mortality. Our list of the papers is here. The 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, in concluding that caps on saturated fats should be continued, ignored all these papers.
Read the full BMJ paper HERE.
New Book Challenges Conventional Wisdom on Red Meat
A new book, Sacred Cow, challenges the conventional view that beef is the most environmentally destructive and least healthy of foods. Sacred Cow takes a critical look at the assumptions and science on meat. Among its arguments is that meat and animal fat are essential for human life and that a sustainable food system cannot exist without animals. It further argues that regenerative cattle ranching is, paradoxically, one of our best tools at mitigating climate change
For a highly worthwhile read, order Sacred Cow here. (For those who buy and submit receipts to sacredcow.info/book by July 14th, they will receive pre-pub materials and a preview link to the companion film.)
The Dietary Guidelines’ final report is due out in 2 days. You can still take action!
YOUR VOICE MATTERS.
For Everyone:
With the expert report coming out in just two days take action now and call for change. Please take time to reach out to your Member(s) of Congress to let them know you are concerned with the current Dietary Guidelines and care about evidence-based Guidelines for all Americans.
For Doctors, and PhDs:
Please consider also signing an open letter asking for a delay in final the report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, currently due out July 15, in order to have time to remedy the serious failures of science described above. The Guidelines must include all the science “that is current at the time.” U.S. residents only, please.
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.
Newsletter Update | June 2020
FEATURED
Update on the final meeting of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee:
Aims to Push Caps on Saturated Fats Even Lower
Has Been Unable to Complete its Work
Unable to Find Low-Carb Studies
New Film, “Fat Fiction” Explains How We Mistakenly Learned to Fear Fat
New Group, Food4Health, Wants a more inclusive Guidelines w/ Sound Science
COVID-19 Shows, all the more, Why Metabolic Health is So Important
In This Issue:
- Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Draft Report Released: Ignores all concerns:
- Still excluding ~all trials on weight loss, on low-carb diets
- Still using a “black box” methodology—not reproducible
- Take Action: Your Voice Needed! (See Below)
- MAJOR new paper on sat fats says gov. limits not warranted
Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) Draft Report Announced
The draft report presented at the final meeting of the 2020 DGAC on June 17 was yet another disappointment in the process for the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). Although numerous groups in recent weeks expressed profound concerns about the myriad of ways the process lacks scientific rigor and transparency, as well as the policy’s narrow scope—the Guidelines are focused only on healthy people—the DGAC made no attempt to address these issues. To read more about the committee’s draft report, read our blog post.
There was one spot of good news: a proposal to reduce the cap on added sugar from 10% to 6% of calories.
The New York Times published an article (6/17):
"More than half the members of a panel considering changes to the nation’s blueprint for healthy eating have ties to the food industry."
The article is paywalled. Here's an excerpt on TNC's work:
Nina Teicholz, executive director of The Nutrition Coalition, who has championed the health benefits of diets low in carbohydrates and high in fat, said the panel had largely overlooked recent studies, some of them controversial, that question longstanding admonitions against consuming excess saturated fats.
She said she feared the agency would continue to promote patterns of eating that are overly reliant on grains and other carbohydrates.
“It’s pretty self evident that the guidelines have done nothing to prevent our country’s epidemics of obesity and diabetes,” she said.
The final report of the DGAC is due out in mid-July.
YOUR VOICE MATTERS.
Please take time to contact your Member(s) of Congress to let them know that you care about evidence-based Dietary Guidelines for all Americans—not just for the healthy but also for those in minority, disadvantaged communities, the elderly, who have different nutritional needs, and the majority of our population that now suffers from one or more diet-related disease--in short, all those people excluded by the Guidelines who most need reliable nutrition advice to help them regain their health.
Major New Paper on Saturated Fats
A group of leading nutrition scientists, including a former member of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) and the Chair of the 2005 DGAC, were among the prominent authors of a “State-of-the-Art Review” in the prestigious Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC): “Saturated Fats and Health: A Reassessment and Proposal for Food-based Recommendations.” This review found that government limits on saturated fats are not justified by the science.
Advice to limit saturated fats has been a basic pillar of the Dietary Guidelines for 40 years. Yet this advice has never had any substantial scientific backing, according to a large and fast-growing body of scientific literature, which now includes the JACC paper.
The JACC abstract reads:
“The recommendation to limit dietary saturated fatty acid (SFA) intake has persisted despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Most recent meta-analyses of randomized trials and observational studies found no beneficial effects of reducing SFA intake on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and total mortality, and instead found protective effects against stroke. Although SFAs increase low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, in most individuals, this is not due to increasing levels of small, dense LDL particles, but rather larger LDL which are much less strongly related to CVD risk. It is also apparent that the health effects of foods cannot be predicted by their content in any nutrient group, without considering the overall macronutrient distribution. Whole-fat dairy, unprocessed meat, eggs and dark chocolate are SFA-rich foods with a complex matrix that are not associated with increased risk of CVD. The totality of available evidence does not support further limiting the intake of such foods.
The paper also notes, “These historical facts demonstrate that saturated fats were an abundant, key part of the ancient human diet.”
By contrast, the 2020 DGAC released a draft report last week asserting that the evidence was “strong” that saturated fats cause heart disease in both adults and children and that these fats should continue to be capped at 10% of calories. The Committee’s final report is due out in mid-July. This means that low-fat dairy and lean meat would continue to be advised over the regular versions of these foods and that a daily consumption of nearly 30 grams of industrially produced soybean oil would continue to be recommended over butter, a natural food.
Early iterations of the Guidelines simply advised people to “reduce” or “limit” saturated fats. Specific numeric caps such as 10% were formally included starting in 2000—without explanation. In fact, in an email obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the chair of the 2015 DGAC acknowledged that the 10% limit was based on “no data….There is no magic/data for the 10% number or 7% number that has been used previously.”
The JACC paper comes after the group of scientists attended a workshop, “Saturated Fats: A Food or Nutrient Approach?” in February. Members of that workshop wrote a consensus statement, submitted two formal public comments to USDA, and sent a letter to the Secretaries of U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services (USDA-HHS) on their findings which concluded that limits on saturated fats are not justified and should be re-examined. The USDA-HHS have not yet replied to their letter.
More than 300 PhDs, Doctors and other Health Care Professionals Call for Reform
Last week, we released an open letter signed by more than 300 PhD’s, doctors and other healthcare practitioners —representing a wide-range of specialties, practicing in communities across the country—calling on the Secretaries of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services (USDA-HHS) to delay the expert report by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee to ensure adequate time for a thorough investigation of allegations made by one or more members of the DGAC about the Dietary Guidelines process. The MD/PhD letter urges USDA-HHS, which together oversee the Guidelines, to seriously consider the allegations made by this/these DGAC member(s) in order to ensure that the DGA is grounded in a rigorous scientific methodology and includes all relevant evidence on nutrition and chronic illness.
From the producers: "What if the 'low fat, heart healthy' diet represents one of the most damaging public health recommendations in the history of our country? FAT FICTION is a film that questions decades of diet advice insisting that saturated fats are bad for us. Along the way, the film reveals the lies we've been told about fats, learn what fats are good, what fats really are bad, and what we can do to reclaim our health."
There’s still time to sign!
TAKE ACTION
For Everyone:
Now is the time to take action. We know that many of you have written comments to the USDA, but we can see now that the agency is unresponsive, and our efforts have fallen on deaf ears. Yet we cannot, at this point, give up. We are urging our friends and followers—anyone who cares about sane, science-based nutrition advice to restore good health to Americans—to please contact your member of Congress HERE. We’ve made it easy for you: we’ve written suggested text and summarized the important points. We just need for you to click on the blue button right here.
For Doctors, and PhDs:
Please consider also signing an open letter asking for a delay in the report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee in order to remedy the failures in the science described above. The Guidelines must include all the science “that is current at the time.” U.S. residents only, please.
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.
Newsletter Update | April 2020
FEATURED
Update on the final meeting of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee:
Aims to Push Caps on Saturated Fats Even Lower
Has Been Unable to Complete its Work
Unable to Find Low-Carb Studies
New Film, “Fat Fiction” Explains How We Mistakenly Learned to Fear Fat
New Group, Food4Health, Wants a more inclusive Guidelines w/ Sound Science
COVID-19 Shows, all the more, Why Metabolic Health is So Important
In This Issue:
- Update on the final meeting of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee:
- Aims to Push Caps on Saturated Fats Even Lower
- Has Been Unable to Complete its Work
- Unable to Find Low-Carb Studies
- New Film, “Fat Fiction” Explains How We Mistakenly Learned to Fear Fat
- New Group, Food4Health, Wants a more inclusive Guidelines w/ Sound Science
- COVID-19 Shows, all the more, Why Metabolic Health is So Important
2020 Dietary Guidelines Update
The final meeting of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) took place in March, and the results were disappointing. Our articles below contain not only information but also links if you would like to take action. We find it hard to imagine another five years of Guidelines recommending 6 servings of grains, 27g soybean oil, and 10% of calories as sugar per day.
On Saturated Fats:
At the March meeting, DGAC members suggested that they’d like to lower the caps on saturated fats even further: from the current 10% of calories down to 7%—or even zero. These ideas are entirely contrary to a steadily growing consensus over the past decade, among top researchers around the world, that the caps on saturated fats were never based on strong science and ought to be reconsidered.
Indeed, as a recent panel of senior scientists from the U.S., Canada, and Denmark stated, in a letter to the Secretaries of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Health and Human Services (USDA-HHS), “we respectfully request….that [you] give serious and immediate consideration to lifting the limits placed on saturated fat intake for the upcoming 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). This request is based on a review of the most rigorous scientific data available.”
Further, they stated, “…'[M]aking recommendations based on anything but the most rigorous science available is likely to have unintended or even potentially harmful consequences to health.”
To read the rest of this article and also make your voice heard on this issue, click here.
On Lack of Rigorous Science:
The last two meetings of the DGAC have revealed many alarming shortfalls in the scientific process. At a minimum, the process lacks transparency, does not use any verified methodology for reviewing the science, and excludes large numbers of rigorous studies--relying often instead on weak data for its conclusions.
For example:
At least a dozen of the DGAC's reviews are based on outdated science. By law, the DGA must reflect the “scientific and medical knowledge which is current at the time the report is prepared,” yet the 2020 process does not meet that standard. At the DGAC meeting in January, committee member Katherine Dewey stated that the 13 reviews undertaken for the “B-24” population (birth-through-24-months) had looked at the scientific literature systematically only through 2016. For studies conducted after 2016, Dewey said the committee had done “an informal search to identify new evidence that has emerged since 2016” but “did not locate any studies that would have changed [their] conclusions.” Dewey did seem concerned, however, that these 13 reviews had perhaps missed some of the science from the past few years. She said,
“We would like to ask the public to please submit public comments if you know of any articles published since 2016 that meet the inclusion criteria and would also significantly affect these conclusions…we do appreciate any comment that the public would like to provide.”
It is, of course, completely unscientific to rely upon random submissions from the public for studies. Thus, the DGA’s B-24 reviews are already out of date before even being published.
To read the rest of this article and make your voice heard on this issue, click here.
DGAC Can’t Find Low-carb Studies:
The DGAC could find no studies on low-carbohydrate diets with carbs as 25% of energy or less, according to an article by the Low-carb Action Network (L-CAN) reports. In fact, L-CAN has documented 52 such studies. The DGAC also apparently excluded all the studies on weight loss. This is inexplicable given that 2/3 of Americans have overweight or obesity. Click here to read this blog post.
Launch of Food For Health
A group called Food For Health launched last week, with the primary goals of promoting a Dietary Guidelines based on rigorous science and inclusive of all Americans. Currently the Guidelines are only for "healthy Americans," according to USDA statements, and the policy has never served the needs of Americans from traditionally under-served and underrepresented communities. The Nutrition Coalition is proud to be a member of this group!
The launch was covered by POLITICO in their Morning Ag newsletter: “NUTRITION DEBATE RAMPS UP AHEAD OF DIETARY GUIDELINES REPORT: Several organizations, including the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, NAACP and National Hispanic Medical Association, today formed the Food4Health Alliance to lobby for federal nutrition guidelines tailored to the needs of tens of millions of Americans who have diet-related diseases like hypertension, obesity and Type 2 diabetes — conditions that disproportionately affect minorities and underserved communities.” Read more here.
Fat Fiction documentary
People typically think that Americans have become fat and sick because they don’t follow the Dietary Guidelines (or their doctors’ advice). Is that true?
From the producers: "What if the 'low fat, heart healthy' diet represents one of the most damaging public health recommendations in the history of our country? FAT FICTION is a film that questions decades of diet advice insisting that saturated fats are bad for us. Along the way, the film reveals the lies we've been told about fats, learn what fats are good, what fats really are bad, and what we can do to reclaim our health."
Now Streaming on Amazon, Vimeo on Demand and FanForceTV:
https://bit.ly/FF_on_Amazonhttp://bit.ly/FF_on_Vimeo
https://bit.ly/FF_on_FF_Premieres
"This is such a powerful documentary. This is exactly the type of informative movie we need to help educate the public."
- Dr. Bret Scher, Cardiologist
COVID-19 shows--All the More--Why Metabolic Health is So Important
We are, like all of you, deeply concerned about COVID-19 and the heartbreaking toll it’s taking on people across the world. We extend our sympathy to all who are suffering, gratitude to all those on the front lines taking care of patients, and support for those facing isolation and the loss or separation from loved ones.
We’ve heard from some people that they feel it's insensitive to bring up issues of chronic disease during this time, and we understand this concern. Yet the Nutrition Coalition is continuing its work precisely because COVID-19 exposes, now more than ever, the importance of helping people restore their metabolic health. This virus has revealed the added risk faced by people with diet-related, chronic diseases. What data is available to date finds that people with diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure, among other illnesses, tend to suffer poorer outcomes than do healthy people. This is a heartbreaking, added toll for people already burdened by these conditions—and makes our work all the more important.
Diet-related diseases need diet-related solutions. As the 2020 Dietary Guidelines process marches on, so must we, to ensure that this policy is based on the best and most current evidence—in order to better reduce the load of chronic diseases that are such a burden—and a risk—to the American public.
For an interesting article on the connection between metabolic disease and COVID-19, see this op-ed, by Harvard’s Dr. David Ludwig, recently published in the New York Times.
Donate to support our work!
The Nutrition Coalition would be grateful for your support during this difficult time. Like so many others, we’ve have had to cut back due to the economic downturn. If you are those fortunate enough to help, we hope that you might consider a donation to support our work. Reducing diet-related diseases has always been urgent issue for the health of our country, perhaps now more than ever. We believe there is still good reason to hope that we can make a difference in these 2020 Guidelines. Thank you.
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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.
Newsletter Update | December 2019
FEATURED
USDA Joins Food Industry Behemoths in New Group Focusing on Portion Control
Obesity will affect Nearly Half of All Americans by 2030, says study
New Group Aims to Ensure Low-Carb Diet is in 2020 Dietary Guidelines
New “Sunshine” Database on Nutrition Scientists Includes Members of the Dietary Guidelines Committee
Please Give to the Nutrition Coalition! Our End-of-Year Fundraising Appeal
In This Issue:
- USDA Joins Food Industry Behemoths in New Group Focusing on Portion Control
- Obesity will affect Nearly Half of All Americans by 2030, says study
- New Group Aims to Ensure Low-Carb Diet is in 2020 Dietary Guidelines
- New “Sunshine” Database on Nutrition Scientists Includes Members of the Dietary Guidelines Committee
- Please Give to the Nutrition Coalition! Our End-of-Year Fundraising Appeal
NEW FOOD INDUSTRY GROUP REVIVES ENERGY BALANCE FOCUS; USDA SIGNS UP, DESPITE SIGNIFICANT DISPUTE ON THIS TOPIC
A new group called the Portion Balance Coalition (PBC) has been formed to promote the idea that the amount rather than the type of food a person eats is the most crucial factor for good health. Swiss food-industry giant Nestle launched the group earlier this year, with the intention of emphasizing the importance of portion control. This is an apparent revival of Coke’s dismantled “energy balance” group which aimed to convince Americans that all calories are the same: i.e., those in sugar are no different than those in salmon. A growing number of scientists disagree with this idea; they counter that the type of calories is what matters most, along with the presence of needed nutrients. Public health groups have questionably allied themselves with such food giants as Unilever and KraftHeinz in the PBC, yet participation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) deserves particular scrutiny, given its weighty responsibility to deliver the nation's dietary policy free of industry influence and also not to take sides in scientific debates. Read our blog on the PBC, including its decision to focus on "Millennials with children...as our initial primary target."
THE EPIDEMIC WITHOUT END? HALF OF AMERICANS WILL HAVE OBESITY BY 2030
According to a new study, fully half of Americans will have obesity by 2030 if current trends continue. Official advice—to eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds while minimizing butter, regular meat, and dairy have self-evidently failed to protect American health. The USDA and its defenders claim that not enough Americans follow USDA advice, but the government’s food availability/consumption data clearly contradict this claim. Clinical trial results to show that following the USDA Dietary Guidelines will prevent disease are also lacking. A separate report, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has equally grim news, stating that rates of pre-diabetes have risen to 1 in 5 adolescents and 1 in 4 adults. This condition, which almost inevitably progresses to a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes, provides more evidence that current official solutions to chronic disease are not delivering positive results.
NEW "SUNSHINE" DATABASE ON NUTRITION SCIENTISTS' CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Image courtesy of ProPublica
The news organization ProPublica launched a “Dollars for Profs” database documenting conflicts of interests among university scientists who’ve received federal funds. Several members of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee were among those studied. These include Purdue University’s Richard Mattes, who has consulted for or received research support from at least nine companies and trade groups in the past five years, such as Procter & Gamble, and PepsiCo Global R&D, Japanese food and biotechnology company Ajinomoto, the California Walnut Commission, the Almond Board of California, Welch Foods, and the Alliance for Potato Research and Education. Mattes also served on the scientific boards of ConAgra and the Grain Foods Foundation, and he has consulted for ConAgra and life-science clinical-research company Biofortis. Meanwhile, another Purdue professor on the Guidelines committee, Reagan Bailey, has received funding from the dietary supplement company Pharmavite and has served as a scientific adviser and government liaison for the ILSI North America Committee on Fortification, a food industry-backed nonprofit whose members include the Coca-Cola Co., General Mills, the Kellogg Company, Nestle USA and PepsiCo Inc.
The Nutrition Coalition has been working to create a comprehensive data base of such conflicts of all members of the Guidelines committee, to be published in 2020. Our brief overview, when the committee was first appointed, can be found here—in which we note that the Committee includes a virtual employee of Nestle USA.
NEW GROUP LAUNCHES TO ENSURE THAT A "TRUE" LOW-CARB DIET IS INCLUDED IN THE 2020 DIETARY GUIDELINES
A new group called the Low-Carb Action Network (L-CAN), a coalition of doctors, academics, and average Americans with personal success stories using low-carb diets, has launched to urge U.S. nutrition leaders to include a true low-carb diet as part of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. L-CAN members point to a large and rapidly growing body of strong scientific research showing that carbohydrate restriction is a safe and effective strategy for the prevention and even reversal of chronic, diet-related conditions such as pre-diabetes/Type 2 diabetes, overweight/obesity, and high blood pressure, along with a broad array of other cardiovascular risk factors. L-CAN members are concerned that the USDA, in its current scientific reviews, is using an inaccurate definition of the diet that is not up-to-date with current science and will lead to misleading, untrustworthy results. Specifically, the USDA is defining “low-carb” as 45 percent of total calories or less, when leaders in the field agree this number should be 25 percent.
END-OF-YEAR APPEAL: PLEASE GIVE TO THE NUTRITION COALITION!
We are the only group anywhere in the world working to instill scientific rigor in nutrition guidelines. Please consider a donation to this important cause. If the Dietary Guidelines remain the same, children will continue to get donuts for breakfast at school, hospital cardiac patients will continue to be served white toast with margarine, and our military will continue to be told pasta is “fighting food” while meat “slows you down” in mess halls. All this unhealthy food and inaccurate advice are driven by the Guidelines—which clearly have to change to reflect the science. We wrote an end-of-year giving appeal that you can read--or head straight to our donation page. We hope you will contribute to this important work. Thank you!
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.
Newsletter Update | November 2019
FEATURED
2020 Dietary Guidelines Repeating Past Mistakes, Still Lack Scientific Rigor
Top Scientists Say Guidelines' Committee Errs on Saturated Fats
U.S. Rep. Fortenberry Notes that Obesity Epidemic Began with the Guidelines
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“The beginning of the Dietary Guidelines pretty much coincides with the start of the obesity epidemic,” 
Annual Giving: It’s that time of year for many people who are planning end-of-year gifts. Please consider supporting The Nutrition Coalition! We are the only group anywhere in the world working to instill scientific rigor in nutrition guidelines. Because we accept no industry support, we rely on the generosity of people like you to support our mission, purely in the interest of the public health. Donations can be made 
Newsletter Update | July 2019
FEATURED
Dietary Guidelines Using Non-Systematic Process, Won’t Be “Trustworthy,” Experts Warn
Guidelines Have Excluded Majority of Rigorous Trial Evidence for Decades
New Review Says No Evidence for Current Recs on Fish Oils, Sat Fats, and more
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Newsletter Update | June 2019
FEATURED
Dietary Guidelines’ New B-24 Guidelines: An Industry Giveaway?
Scientific Rigor and Scope Still Major Questions for the Guidelines
Former USDA Chief of Staff Weighs in on Guidelines
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Newsletter Update | May 2019
FEATURED
1st Dietary Guidelines Meeting: Policy is only for “Healthy Americans”
New Amer. Diabetes Assoc. Review Highlights Carb Restriction
New Salt Recs by Nat'l Academies Return to “Lower is Better”
Can a Low-Fat Diet Reduce Deaths from Breast Cancer?
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The recent “
