{"id":8378,"date":"2015-12-18T13:08:07","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T18:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=8378"},"modified":"2015-12-18T13:08:07","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T18:08:07","slug":"congress-and-dietary-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/congress-and-dietary-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"CONGRESS AND DIETARY GUIDELINES"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/capitol.jpg\" alt=\"capitol\" width=\"400\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/capitol.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/capitol-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/capitol-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>According to NBC News, it appears Congress is making clear to USDA where to draw the line on Dietary Guidelines. See:<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aol.com\/article\/2015\/12\/18\/budget-bill-limits-new-food-advice-edited-humans-gm-salmon\/21285571\/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl5|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D-675528714\"> Budget Bill Limits New Food Advice <\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>AOL\/NBC said,<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8220;Congress is scheduled to vote on a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/congress\/deal-reached-trillion-dollar-government-spending-package-n480796\">$1.1 trillion spending bill<\/a> Friday that would avert a government shutdown until next October and fund almost all federal activities.<\/p>\n<p>But like just about any bill in Congress, this one&#8217;s full of little goodies and pet projects that can have a big effect on medical research and health and science policies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dietary guidelines<\/strong><br \/>\nThe joint USDA\/FDA food guidelines, which come out every five years, were due by the end of December. The bill holds that up after a big fight over an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/new-diet-proposals-eat-your-veggies-have-some-coffee-n309026\">advisory panel&#8217;s recommendations<\/a> that included limiting salt, eating less meat and, most controversially, eating a plant-based diet that protects the environment. Now the agencies cannot release their guidelines until they can show they are &#8220;based on significant scientific agreement; and &#8230; limited in scope to nutritional and dietary information&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Salt limits<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Congress is preventing the Agriculture Department from putting into effect any rule cutting sodium levels in federally provided meals &#8220;until the latest scientific research establishes the reduction is beneficial for children.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Menu labels<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The FDA <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/fda-gives-restaurants-extra-year-label-menus-n389281\">delayed its plan<\/a> to require restaurants to add calorie counts to menus. The bill makes sure the calorie counts stay off menus for now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GMO Salmon<\/strong><br \/>\nFDA won&#8217;t be able to allow the sale of genetically modified salmon until it has a plan for labeling the fish. And out of FDA&#8217;s budget &#8220;not less than $150,000 shall be used to develop labeling guidelines and implement a program to disclose to consumers whether salmon offered for sale to consumers is a genetically engineered variety.&#8221; When FDA <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/genetically-modified-salmon-safe-eat-can-be-sold-u-s-n466286\">approved GM salmon<\/a> last month it said companies didn&#8217;t have to label it, provoking the fury of anti-GMO groups.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to NBC News, it appears Congress is making clear to USDA where to draw the line on Dietary Guidelines. See: Budget Bill Limits New Food Advice AOL\/NBC said, &#8220;Congress is scheduled to vote on a $1.1 trillion spending bill Friday that would avert a government shutdown until next October and fund almost all federal [&hellip;]<\/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-8378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378","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=8378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8380,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378\/revisions\/8380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}