{"id":16759,"date":"2021-01-13T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T15:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=16759"},"modified":"2021-01-05T09:31:16","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T14:31:16","slug":"2020-2025-dietary-guidelines-for-americans-released-has-both-positive-and-negative-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2021\/01\/13\/2020-2025-dietary-guidelines-for-americans-released-has-both-positive-and-negative-features\/","title":{"rendered":"2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Released; Has Both Positive and Negative Features"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dietary Guidelines for Americans<\/em> is a document that\nis produced every 5 years and serves as a statement of current federal policy\non the role of dietary factors in health promotion and disease prevention. It\nis used as the foundation for federal nutrition education materials, by\nschools, the food industry, and many others. During the process of updating the\nDietary Guidelines, <\/em>the USDA and the\nDepartment of Health and Human Services (DHHS) appoint a committee of\nscientists to review current scientific evidence related to diet and to create\nan extensive scientific report. Interested groups and individuals comment on\nthe scientific report. This report is used to inform the Dietary Guidelines<\/em> which are written by the staff of the USDA and\nDHHS.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The latest\nedition of the Dietary Guidelines<\/em> was\nreleased in December 2020. This edition is the first to include recommendations\nfor the entire life-span, from birth through older adulthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As was true of the previous edition, the most recent Dietary Guidelines <\/em>endorses \u201ca healthy vegetarian dietary pattern\u201d as one of three dietary patterns that can \u201cbe tailored to meet cultural and personal preferences.\u201d There are versions of this plan for ages 1 year and older. The text of the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines<\/em> reminds vegetarians and others eating few animal products to consider use of a vitamin B12 supplement. The Guidelines<\/em> also encourage all Americans to eat more plant foods including dried beans, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and nuts. These are all positive features. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This edition of\nthe Dietary Guidelines<\/em> has been\nfaulted for not addressing sustainability or greenhouse gas emissions; both of\nthese issues affect human health and are connected to food production and\ndietary choices. Additionally, the recommendations by the Scientific Advisory\nCommittee to reduce added sugar consumption to 6% of calories and limit daily\nalcohol consumption to one drink per day for men and women appear to have been\nignored in the text developed by the USDA and DHHS. Added sugar is capped at\n10% of calories as it was in the earlier edition and daily alcohol consumption\nlimits are still two drinks a day for men and one for women.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Another issue\nwith the latest Dietary Guidelines <\/em>is\nthat they continue to promote a \u201cDairy Group\u201d even though this group now\nincludes fortified soymilk.  Another name\nwould more clearly indicate that this group includes something other than dairy\nproducts. All of the Vegetarian Dietary Patterns call for use of eggs with no\nsuggestions for vegan foods that could replace eggs. The VRG will continue to\nadvocate for changes to future Dietary\nGuidelines<\/em> to make them vegan-friendly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health\nand Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. <\/em>9th\nEdition. December 2020. Available at DietaryGuidelines.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read VRG\u2019s comments on the Scientific Report of\nthe 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory <\/em>Committee\nhere<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD Dietary Guidelines for Americans is a document that is produced every 5 years and serves as a statement of current federal policy on the role of dietary factors in health promotion and disease prevention. It is used as the foundation for federal nutrition education materials, by schools, the food industry, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16761,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16759\/revisions\/16761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}