This story first appeared on Civil Eats.
When the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Agriculture (USDA), released new Dietary Guidelines for Americans on Dec. 29, 2020, they looked almost identical to the ones released five years earlier. There were new guidelines related to pregnancy, breastfeeding, and children under two, but to those who d been paying attention to the process, what stood out was what had not changed.
Most glaringly, the guidelines failed to take up key recommendations from the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the group of experts responsible for preparing a detailed report intended to inform the final guidelines. This year, that document was 835 pages long and included recommendations for lowering the amount of recommended daily sugar from 10% of one s daily calories to 6%, as well as limiting alcohol consumption to one drink a day for both men and women.
New Dietary Guidelines for Americans Ignore Recommendations on Sugar, Alcohol
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INT: New dietary guidelines for Americans ignore recommendations on sugar, alcohol
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About 45% of adults have hypertension.
Almost 11% of Americans have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, and almost 35% of American adults have prediabetes.
Large numbers of Americans don t get enough calcium, potassium, dietary fiber, and vitamin D.
Noting that “
more than half of adults have one or more diet-related chronic diseases,” as in previous years, the advice broadly is to:
Consume a healthy dietary pattern, including: Vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, with some vegetable oils, low-fat dairy or fortified soy beverages and yogurt, lean meat and poultry, and seafood.
Limit: Alcoholic beverages, and foods and beverages higher in added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium.
U.S. Government Affirms Dietary Guidelines on Sugar, Alcohol
Bloomberg 12/29/2020 Michael Hirtzer
(Bloomberg) The Trump administration rejected a push by the scientific community for recommendations that adults should reduce sugar and alcohol in their diets.
While the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for 2020-25 advised for the first time that children under 2 years old avoid sugar, the publication issued Tuesday left recommendations for sugar and alcoholic consumption unchanged, citing a lack of evidence for a shift.
The guidelines issued jointly by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services “carried forward the committee’s emphasis on limiting these dietary components, but did not include changes to quantitative recommendations,” according to a statement.