Newsletter Update | May 2023

Senator Chuck Grassley Calls on Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee to Halt its Work Until Conflicts of Interest are Resolved In an unprecedented move, Senator Chuck Grassley last week called for suspending the work of the 2025 U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans until members of the expert committee in charge of the science fully disclose their conflicts-of-interest (COI). This is potentially a huge win for greater transparency in the Dietary Guidelines, a battle that the Nutrition Coalition has led almost single-handedly for years. We supported the first-ever systematic review of COI on a Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC), which led to the revelation that 95% of the 2020 DGAC had at least one tie to the food/pharmaceutical industry. Before that, we were responsible for encouraging Congress to mandate the first-ever outside peer-review of the Guidelines, by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), which led to a recommendation for full public disclosure of all COI on the DGAC. This formal NASEM recommendation now provides the backing needed for Senator Grassley to make this request. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) did recently release COI disclosures on its current expert committee, but as Grassley’s letter explains, “these disclosures were aggregated and not attributed to individual committee members.” This is contrary to basic disclosure practices, in which COI are listed by specific name. Dr. Gordon Guyatt, a professor at McMaster’s University and one of the world’s leading experts in evidence-based medicine, commented, “If the USDA is trying to convey the message that they have something to hide and are doing their best to hide it, they are doing an excellent job.” See Guyatt’s full quote and our press release on this issue here. Our work was covered by “Food Navigator” in a piece entitled, “Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee needs to be ‘free of food industry commercial interest." We’re glad this issue is finally receiving the coverage it deserves. Senator Grassley’s letter asks for a response from USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services by June 8th. Lawmakers Weigh in on SNAP Reform Recently, we’ve seen encouraging action aimed at reducing the amount of sugary drinks and other junk food available to purchase via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. Surprisingly, soft drinks are not only permitted as part of SNAP but are the top item purchased. The government spends about $74 billion a year on SNAP and with 10% of all SNAP funds spent on sweetened beverages, according to one estimate, this would equate to at least $7.4 billion in taxpayer funds going to subsidize the sweetened beverage industry each year. Senator Marco Rubio recently penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling on Congress to ban the purchasing of junk food with SNAP dollars. “More than 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese, and roughly half have diabetes or prediabetes. These diseases can be debilitating. They are also extremely expensive, costing hundreds of billions of dollars in medical costs each year,” Rubio wrote. “That SNAP plays a role in their spread is immoral, irresponsible and reprehensible.” He announced plans to introduce legislation that “would explicitly exclude soda and prepared desserts from SNAP, reorienting the program toward healthy food…and beverages like milk….” A few weeks later, Congressman Andy Harris authored an op-ed entitled, “We are Funding Our Children’s Disease and Doctor Visits With SNAP,” calling for “no SNAP funding for sugar-added beverages and non-nutritious foods.” We believe these may be a significant step forward in promoting healthier food for SNAP recipients. By removing soda and sugary beverages from the list of eligible items, this reform would contribute to combating obesity and chronic diseases. Opponents to restricting benefits believe that SNAP recipients should have the freedom to make their own dietary choices, including the ability to purchase unhealthy items such as soda if they desire. Keto and Mental Health: The New Field of Metabolic Psychiatry The use of a ketogenic diet to treat mental-health conditions is an exciting new field, called metabolic psychiatry. Leading the way in this area is Metabolic Mind, a group recently founded by Jan Baszucki, whose adult son suffered from bipolar disorder for years–and went through 41 clinicians along with 29 medications–before she found his condition could be helped with a ketogenic diet. She shares an inspiring account of her experience helping Matt in this op-ed published last week in the S.F. Chronicle. The Latest From Our Founder Nina Teicholz Is Keto Bad for the Heart? In this piece, Nina delves into the recent wave of anti-keto headlines from authoritative sources such as the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, raising questions about the weak and non-existent scientific evidence behind their claims. Evidence for the American Heart Association's diet is....a single clinical trial Building on the piece above, Nina does an in-depth analysis of the American Heart Association (AHA)'s 'gold standard' diet for fighting heart disease, including the startling revelation that a single, once-retracted clinical trial, known as PREDIMED, was used to justify the group’s entire dietary pattern recommendation. Further, she exposes the problem that PREDIMED lacks alignment with the AHA advice. This deep dive challenges the public’s unquestioning acceptance of the AHA guidelines and underscores the need for critical evaluation of the evidence behind dietary recommendations. Recent Podcast Episodes Nina has recently appeared on a few podcasts, you can catch-up on each of them below: The Meat Mafia Podcast Dr. Ken Berry: American Heart Association Bought Off! Stay Off my Operating Table: Nina Teicholz: Want to Avoid Heart Disease? Eat More Fat Michelle Obama's New Soft Drink Venture Raises Concern Former first lady Michelle Obama recently announced the launch of PLEZi Nutrition, a company apparently aimed at fighting childhood obesity by offering healthy food and beverages for kids. While Obama has been widely celebrated for her various food-related initiatives for kids, her foray into the sugary drinks market has raised concerns. Plezi's flavored juice drink blend fails to meet the very standards that Obama herself championed during her time in the White House, because the juices contain added sweeteners such as stevia leaf and monk-fruit extracts, which were forbidden under her new rules (Obama-promoted new beverage rules also made whole milk in schools illegal, allowing only 1% or non-fat). Sugar consumption can have detrimental effects on children's health, contributing to dental caries and an increased risk of chronic diseases such as obesity. Rather than create alternatives with less sugar, we believe the focus should be on educating children about the benefits of choosing unsweetened beverages, promoting healthier habits and reducing their overall intake or any sugary beverage. A Corporate Wellness Program That Works The corporate wellness industry is valued at $8 billion, with about 80% of large employers offering such programs, including services such as coaching and biometrics. However, a 2019 report from the University of Chicago found that these programs fail to improve health, reduce costs, decrease absenteeism, or enhance job performance. Why does corporate wellness fail to deliver the expected results? Scientific advancements over the past decade have led to an understanding that the key to weight loss and reversing chronic diseases is not so much exercise but a better diet. While most wellness programs emphasize exercise in combination with a low-fat diet focused on fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, more effective dietary options, such as carbohydrate-restriction, have not been widely implemented. A low-carb pioneer is New Jersey doctor Tro Kalayjian, whose “Metabolic-Health Employee Wellness Program'' promotes itself as providing “a patient-centered individualized low-carbohydrate lifestyle approach to improve metabolic health.” In a 6-month employer-based pilot program, Dr. Tro found that participating employees experienced weight loss, a significant reduction in average blood sugar (key for controlling diabetes), decreased medication use, and a remarkable 44% reduction in the 10-year risk score for major cardiovascular events. The program also estimated an annualized corporate cost savings of about $45,000 due to the reduction in medication use. These findings highlight the potential impact of a new approach to corporate wellness programs–ones that work. See Dr. Tro on local television discussing his results: Donate to the Nutrition Coalition The Nutrition Coalition is a 501(c)(3), and its EIN is 81-4498321. 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