Nina Teicholz, Ph.D.

Overview

Teicholz is a graduate of Stanford (B.A.), Oxford (M.Phil), and Reading (Ph.D.) Universities. Her doctorate is in nutrition, with a focus on evidence-based dietary guidelines. In her book, The Big Fat Surprise, Teicholz traces the origins of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans. She describes how this highly influential policy was, from the outset, based on weak, contradictory evidence and how any efforts to fix this policy have since been derailed by a mixture of personal ambition, bad science, politics, and bias.

Teicholz has no conflicts of interest. She has no ties to industry of any kind.

For the past decade, Teicholz has been a leading voice in raising awareness about the idea that our dietary guidelines are problematic and likely to have caused the very epidemics they were meant to prevent. More importantly, she has worked to create the necessary foundation for change by encouraging Congress to mandate a thorough review of the guidelines process by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM).

Background

In 2015, Teicholz founded The Nutrition Coalition (TNC), a 501(c)(3) dedicated to ensuring evidence-based nutrition policy in America. As the Executive Director (2015- 2019), Teicholz became the most nationally prominent, science-based challenger to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. TNC is the country’s only watchdog group following this highly influential government policy.

National Academies assessment of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines process:

  1. Encouraged Congress in 2015 to mandate, with a $1 million allocation, a thorough review of the Dietary Guidelines process by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).
    1. The NASEM published a two-part report in 2017 with 11 recommendations for the USDA1; to reform the guidelines process.
  2. Encouraged Congress in 2019 to mandate, with a $1 million allocation, a follow-up report by the NASEM to evaluate the USDA’s progress in fulfilling the NASEM recommendations.
    1. The NASEM delivered this report in two parts, in 2022 and 2023, detailed below.

Further work with Congress:

  1. Secured language in a 2024 Congressional committee report saying that any new guidelines should include "a dietary pattern for the treatment of diet-related diseases, including obesity and diabetes, and based exclusively on rigorous data."  1 The USDA co-issues the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans with the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, but the office that conducts the science reviews and administers the guidelines is housed at USDA.

Keystone academic papers documenting problems with the US Dietary Guidelines

Due to Teicholz’s efforts, there now exists, for the first time, a body of peer-reviewed papers establishing the problems of the guidelines: the lack of a rigorous methodology, the many recommendations not backed by sufficient evidence, the dismissal of important, government-funded science, the lack of transparency, and the excessive influence of food and pharmaceutical industries on the process. Teicholz has organized all these papers and co-authored all but one.

  1. An analysis of the recent US dietary guidelines process in light of its federal mandate and a National Academies report

    Cheryl Achterberg, Arne Astrup, Dennis M Bier, Janet C King, Ronald M Krauss, Nina Teicholz, Jeff S Volek, An analysis of the recent US dietary guidelines process in light of its federal mandate and a National Academies report, PNAS Nexus, Volume 1, Issue 3, July 2022, pgac107, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac107

    →Authors include 3 former members of US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committees

    Major findings:

    • Recommendations for total fat and saturated fat are without evidence
    • The USDA has ignored the science on low-carbohydrate diets
    • The USDA has ignored the NASEM recommendations

  2. Dietary Saturated Fats and Health: Are the U.S. Guidelines Evidence-Based?

    https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/10/3305

    Astrup, A.; Teicholz, N.; Magkos, F.; Bier, D.M.; Brenna, J.T.; King, J.C.; Mente, A.; Ordovas, J.M.; Volek, J.S.; Yusuf, S.; Krauss, R.M. Dietary Saturated Fats and Health: Are the U.S. Guidelines Evidence-Based? Nutrients 2021, 13, 3305.

    →Authors include 3 former members of US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committees and the former Chair of the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee

    Major findings:

    • The USDA recommendation on saturated fat is not supported by the evidence
    • 88% of the evidence reviewed by the USDA in 2020 did not support a continued limit on saturated fat, yet the USDA concluded the opposite

  3. Saturated Fats and Health: A Reassessment and Proposal for Food-Based Recommendations: JACC State-of-the-Art Review

    https://www.jacc.org/doi/abs/10.1016/j.jacc.2020.05.077

    Astrup A, Magkos F, Bier D, et al. Saturated Fats and Health: A Reassessment and Proposal for Food-Based Recommendations. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2020 Aug, 76 (7) 844–857.

    →Authors include 4 former members of US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committees

    Major findings:

    • There is insufficient evidence for a continued 10% of calories cap on saturated fats.
    • Note: this “State of the Art Review” is the highest-level paper on this topic, published in a prestigious and influential journal. The paper was named by the Editor-in-Chief as one of the top ten published in 2020.

  4. Alternative Dietary Patterns for Americans: Low-Carbohydrate Diets

    https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/10/3299

    Volek, J.S.; Phinney, S.D.; Krauss, R.M.; Johnson, R.J.; Saslow, L.R.; Gower, B.; Yancy, W.S., Jr.; King, J.C.; Hecht, F.M.; Teicholz, N.; Bistrian, B.R.; Hamdy, O. Alternative Dietary Patterns for Americans: Low-Carbohydrate Diets. Nutrients 2021, 13, 3299. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13103299

    →Authors include the Medical Director of the Obesity Clinic Program and Inpatient Diabetes Program at Joslin Diabetes Center.

    Major findings:

    • Sufficient evidence exists for the USDA to establish a low-carbohydrate “Dietary Pattern” as an option for people with chronic diseases.
    • Currently, there is no option in the guidelines for the 60% of people diagnosed with one or more of these diseases.
    • Clinical trials on low-carbohydrate diets have demonstrated proven efficacy for reversing hypertension, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.

  5. Conflicts of interest for members of the U.S. 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee

    Mialon, M., Serodio, P., Crosbie, E., Teicholz, N., Naik, A., & Carriedo, A. (2022). Conflicts of interest for members of the U.S. 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Public Health Nutrition, 1-28. doi:10.1017/S1368980022000672

    First-ever systematic review of conflicts of interest on any Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee worldwide.

    Major findings:

    • 95% of committee members had a tie to a food or pharmaceutical company
    • Half of the 20-person committee had 30 such ties or more

  6. Cover Story: The scientific report guiding the US dietary guidelines: is it scientific?

    Teicholz N. The scientific report guiding the US dietary guidelines: is it scientific? BMJ 2015; 351 :h4962 doi:10.1136/bmj.h4962 https://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h4962

    First major critical review of the US Dietary Guidelines. A BMJ cover story.

    Major findings:

    • “There is a minuscule quantity of evidence supporting the USDA Dietary Patterns.
    • The USDA has ignored all the major, NIH-funded clinical trials on the low-fat diet and on the question of whether replacing saturated fats with vegetable (seed) oils prevent heart disease. The NIH spent billions of dollars to conduct these trials, with the aim of informing dietary policy, yet they were ignored.

History of the Guidelines and The Big Fat Surprise

Teicholz initially detailed the history of the guidelines in her New York Times and international bestseller, The Big Fat Surprise (2014), published by Simon & Schuster.

This book was named a *best* book of the year by the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Forbes, Mother Jones, and Kirkus Reviews (which gave it a starred review).

As a lay publication, the book also received the rare honor of being reviewed by a trio of top scientific journals: the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN), The Lancet, and the BMJ. These reviews were all highly positive.

  • The Lancet: "Gripping narrative…this is a disquieting book about scientific incompetence, evangelical ambition, and ruthless silencing of dissent that has shaped our lives for decades…researchers, clinicians, and health policy advisors should read this provocative book."
  • AJCN: "All scientists...every nutrition professional...should read this book"
  • BMJ: "Impressive...This book shook me...Teicholz has done a remarkable job in analysing [the] weak science, strong personalities, vested interests, and political expediency."

    • 1The USDA co-issues the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans with the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, but the office that conducts the science reviews and administers the guidelines is housed at USDA.