Newsletter Update | July 2023

USDA Funds Study on Ultra-Processed Food Diet The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently unveiled results of a study it funded—a study with the dubious aim of constructing a dietary pattern comprised almost exclusively of ultra-processed foods. Yes, you read that right. The authors crafted a week-long menu with 91% of calories sourced from ultra-processed foods (UPF). Incredibly, they labeled this a "healthy" diet, because it conforms to the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This apparent disregard for the processing level of the foods underscores the obvious flaws in our current approach to dietary recommendations. A UPF pattern clearly benefits the food industry, not the health of Americans. Will an USDA-endorsed UPF version of the Dietary Guidelines be next? Here are some other examples we've discovered of how USDA has favored the food industry: In a study initiated by the Nutrition Coalition, 95% of the last Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee was found to have a financial conflict-of-interest with a food or pharmaceutical company. The USDA office in charge of the Dietary Guidelines maintains more than a hundred corporate partners in the food industry. PURE Study and Full-Fat Dairy The world's largest observational study, the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) Study, released its most recent paper with one of the key findings being that whole-fat dairy should be included as one of six foods that comprising a healthy diet. Multiple papers have been published from the PURE data. This one is focused on developing a globally applicable healthy diet score, called the PURE Score. The researchers analyzed data not only from PURE but also from five independent studies encompassing a total of more than 244,000 individuals from 80 countries. The PURE scoring system defined a healthy diet as one relatively high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, fish, and whole-fat dairy. A higher score was attributed to diets composed of more of these nutrient-dense foods. A higher intake of these foods correlated with improved health and a reduced risk of illness, the study found. This research has the same limitations of all epidemiological studies in that it shows correlation, not a cause-and-effect relationship. However, PURE's contrary finding on full-fat dairy is meaningful in that it contradicts the conventional wisdom. Dariush Mozaffarian, the influential former Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University, cited this paper and acknowledged that full-fat dairy can indeed be part of a healthy diet. U.S. health recommendations have favored low-fat dairy for decades, but the PURE finding imply that high-fat dairy is the better option for health. Legislation to Make SNAP Healthier Senators Cory Booker and Marco Rubio recently joined forces to introduce a bipartisan bill named the "SNAP Nutrition Security Act," which demands that the USDA divulge the specific food items purchased using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) dollars. You might find it surprising that such monitoring doesn't already exist, but the USDA currently lacks the means to track or report on the use of $127 billion in annual SNAP funding. The aim of this legislation is to shift SNAP's focus from solely ensuring food security to emphasizing nutrition security, i.e the idea that Americans need to get not just calories, but all the vitamins and minerals needed for good health. While SNAP has effectively addressed hunger since its inception in 1939 (originally called Food Stamps), a growing consensus, with bipartisan support, is now focusing on the need for food assistance programs to prioritize nutritious options for our most vulnerable citizens. Even two former Secretaries of Agriculture recently collaborated on an op-ed, promoting this legislation.  The news of this initiative may not sit well with everyone. Anti-hunger groups are apprehensive that greater scrutiny might lead to restrictions on what people are allowed to buy, while the food industry fears the potential removal of their nutrition-poor products from SNAP. This issue will undoubtedly become a contentious battle this Fall, as the Farm Bill, which authorizes SNAP, is debated by Congress. Nonetheless, we believe that SNAP dollars should not be used to purchase non-nutritious foods. Our government should not be in the business of promoting ill-health. ICYMI: House Committee Cites Need for a Dietary Guidelines to Combat Chronic Diseases It would seem obvious that the US Dietary Guidelines should address chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, but they don’t. Instead they've been exclusively focused on the prevention of chronic disease, not the options needed to treat the 60% of adults who have already been diagnosed with a disease. Now the Guidelines seem likely to change, however. Last month we flagged the exciting news that the House Appropriations report for 2024 acknowledged the need for our guidelines to address disease treatment. We now have a blog post that goes into more detail on the topic .This news is particularly relevant for health-care professionals who are being told the Guidelines are the gold standard for disease treatment. They’re not. Please share this news with your networks. ICYMI: Teicholz on Canceling the Science on Saturated Fats The Washington Post ran an op-ed last month entitled, “Don’t Believe the Backlash: Saturated Fat Actually is Bad for You.” Teicholz published a rebuttal in her Substack column. “Asserting that the science is ’settled’ is part of the manufacturing-consent playbook crafted by the tobacco industry," she writes. Give this piece a read and bookmark it for the next time a friend or family member is unsure about eating saturated fat. Donate to the Nutrition Coalition The Nutrition Coalition is a 501(c)(3), and its EIN is 81-4498321. The Nutrition Coalition is a nonprofit, and we get the bulk of our funding from individuals like you. Hence, these requests for donations. The Nutrition Coalition The Nutrition Coalition 459 Columbus Ave. #710 New York, NY 10024 You received this email because you signed up on our website or made a contribution to us. Unsubscribe