For a Healthier America
We Need U.S. Dietary Guidelines Based on Sound Scientific Evidence
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Join us to support real food that will restore good health to America.
Sarah Hallberg
Medical Director, Founder
Medically Supervised Weight Loss Clinic
Indiana University Health Arnett
Sean Bourke
Chief Medical Officer
JumpstartMD
Bay Area, CA
Charles Cavo
Medical Director
Pounds Transformation
West Hartford, CT
Mark Cucuzzella
Professor, Family Medicine
West Virginia University
How Can We Make Our Guidelines Healthier?
Here Are 11 Evidence-Based Reforms That Will Help Get Our Health Back on Track
Undertake a communications campaign to let Americans know that the low-fat diet is no longer officially recommended
Since 2015, the DGAs have quietly dropped their “low-fat diet recommendation, acknowledging that this diet is “associated with dyslipidemia” (see page 338)—meaning heart disease. Yet the government has yet to announce this important change to the public.
Ease or lift caps on saturated fats
At least 14 meta-analyses and systematic reviews of the scientific literature now conclude that saturated fats are not associated with heart disease and/or have no effect on cardiovascular mortality. Saturated fats are part of many natural, unprocessed foods, such as meat and dairy, that contain needed nutrients.
Offer low-carbohydrate diets as a viable option for fighting chronic disease
Expert committees for the guidelines have never systematically reviewed the large body of research on low-carbohydrate diets, which now amounts to more than 70 clinical trials on altogether thousands of people, including two-year trials considered long enough to reveal any harmful side effects. These trials demonstrate the safety and efficacy of this diet for combating obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Offer a meaningful diversity of diets
Although the DGAs now feature three recommended “Dietary Patterns” – “US-style,” Mediterranean, and vegetarian — the current guidelines remain a one-size-fits-all diet, which is not appropriate for a general population in which nutritional needs vary by age, genetics, gender, race, and degree of disease state.
Make the DGA diets nutritionally sufficient, with nutrients coming from whole foods, not artificially fortified refined grains
The current recommend DGA diets that are deficient in potassium, vitamin D, vitamin E, and choline, according to the DGAs’ own expert report. Further, to the extent that the DGA diets are nutritionally sufficient, they depend heavily on the 3-5 recommended daily servings of artificially fortified refined grains, which are high in refined carbohydrates and are not a natural source for these nutrients.
Stop telling Americans to do aerobic exercise for weight loss
(Although exercise is an important part of overall health and well-being.)
Stop recommending “lower is better” on salt
Three peer-reviewed studies in major journals in addition to a 2013 report by the Institute of Medicine all conclude that in addition to an upper limit on sodium consumption there should also be a lower limit, below which an increased risk of cardiovascular death is seen.
Stop telling the public that reaching and maintaining a healthy weight requires little more than choosing “an appropriate calorie level”
The calorie–in-calorie-out (“energy balance”) model of obesity — which asserts that people get fat because they eat too much and exercise too little — oversimplifies the issue. Insulin and other hormones are among other factors also involved in determining weight.
Stop recommending vegetable oils for health
Large, government-funded controlled clinical trials on more than 50,000 people have demonstrated that replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated vegetable oils such as soybean and corn oil (but not olive oil), does not reduce cardiovascular mortality and in quite a few trials, caused an increase in death rates from cancer and suicides.
Recommend regular meat and milk rather than the low-fat/lean versions
There are no clinical-trial data showing that “lean meat” or “low-fat” dairy are better for health than the more natural versions of these foods. Nor are there rigorous, clinical trial data showing any ill effects of red or processed meats.
Don’t issue guidelines based on weak, observational data
Experts developing the guidelines have, in many cases, issued recommendations based on weak, observational data, while ignoring relevant clinical trial data and improperly prioritizing observational findings. The guidelines should be based on a complete, comprehensive review of the most rigorous (randomized, controlled clinical trial) data available, and on subjects for which this data is lacking, the guidelines should remain silent.
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