Page 60 - Winter2014

The Baneful Consequences

of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines

by Adele Hite, PhD

he next set of Dietary Guidelines for Americans
(DGA), the public health nutrition policy that directs

Tall federal nutrition activities “including research,
education, nutrition assistance, labeling, and nutrition

promotion," are due out in 2015. The DGA are meant
1
to address a simple question: What should Americans eat

to be healthy? As the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory
2
Committee (DGAC) begins to create the report that will

advise any possible changes to the DGA, they appear
poised to provide the same answer to that question that

has proven largely ineffective for the past thirty-five years.

Although the DGAC has retreated from the recommendation that
Americans reduce their intake of total fat, limits on saturated fat and cho-
lesterol from animal products remain firmly in place and these levels may
be restricted further. Thus despite the superficial movement away from
reduced-fat guidance, in terms of which foods are permitted and which are
restricted or forbidden, nothing has changed.
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