FOOD & DRINK
The Department of Agriculture and Health and Human Services has just this week, released its newest edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs), which have been published every five years since 1980, making this the 10th edition.
As foodie and a nutrition professional, I cannot ignore or disregard these guidelines and the updates made to them every five years. It is my professional responsibility to know what changed, stayed the same, was removed or improved upon.
I also have a personal curiosity as to what the guidelines recommend for living a healthy and long life through current evidence and research.
Love it or hate it, every five years a gathering of key stakeholders including government officials, researchers, academics, policy makers, lobbyists, food science experts, hold countless public hearings to create DGAs.
(You can see the 90-page PDF document RealFood.Gov)
Professional Perspective
What follows is just my opinion as a 16-year sports nutrition professional, exercise physiologist, health and fitness specialist, and competitive athlete who follows my own dietary strategy and lifestyle habits.
My take is evidence-based, coupled with real world experiences, and I would like to talk about the guidelines and highlight where I feel these new DGAs got things very right, as well as where they got some things very wrong. Let’s get started….
Why is the government still telling me what to eat?
People tell me they don’t like being told by the government what they should or should not eat. Many say they simply distrust the government’s recommendations because of the influence of big business, which come at the expense of true public health.
I can understand people on these points. I get it.
Food is deeply tied to all of us and our identity. Our roots, our culture, our origins, and our geographical regions. Being told by an outside authority that something within our identity is good or bad truly stings. It makes us get defensive and dig our heels in.
Food is a very tribal subject, and people often fall within a tribe, or set of tribes, that foster even stronger identities beyond ethnicity or region.
Food-tribes, whether plant-based, carnivore, paleo, raw food, low carb, keto, fasting, or many others, all layer on more personal identity.
The bottom line stands; no one really likes being told exactly how to eat.
The good news is that the DGAs are not a personalized prescription for exactly how to eat, or even what to eat. They are just as they are titled — ‘guidelines.’
A reference point to formulate a general foundation of eating that offers a good starting point for eating just enough quality calories to grow and thrive, getting enough balanced nutrition from key nutrients to prevent deficiencies, and to prevent illness and disease.
Getting Personal
If the DGAs are not your thing or never have been, that’s fine. No one is required to adopt them 100 percent as written.
What I find surprising yet to this day is how one major player in the healthcare space gets overlooked far too many times.
This oversight only recently came to light when Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, urged medical schools to give Doctors more formal training on nutrition to better serve the American public.
An outcry came from registered dieticians (RDs) all over the country, including some I know personally, with posts on social media and LinkedIn abounding.
“The professional role of an RD exists just for this purpose. Do we not we already fill this exact need?”
That was the rally cry I heard from many colleagues, who felt (rightfully?) jaded as professionals, whose educational requirements contain exactly what Kennedy was calling for.
Registered dieticians must have advanced training resulting in a master’s degree.
Clinical dietetics have experience totaling 1,000 hours and must pass a national board examination and meet state licensing laws to practice.
See full RD credential requirements.
There’s No Substitute for Expertise
Several RD specialists exist within the profession as well and seeking them out is the surest way to find personalized guidance and customized dietary eating patterns tailored for you.
Factoring in objective measures like weight and height, age, gender, blood work, activity level, and behavioral matters. Other factors like cultural, financial, religious, geographical and even culinary skillsets can also be considered when working with these true experts of dietary healthcare.
Look for specialist with these credentials as it applies to your needs. Gerontological nutrition (CSG), sports dietetics (CSSD), pediatric nutrition (CSP), renal nutrition (CSR) and oncology nutrition (CSO), Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES).
An Obsession with pyramids?
I don’t really know why we have the obsession with food pyramids.
I understand the visual analogy of prioritization, and more-or-less of this-or-that food group, sure.
But now we’ve used three versions of the pyramid, including a traditional pyramid, a sliced pyramid with stairs, and now an inverted pyramid.
But as to how this relates to the day-to-day eating patterns of humans? — You got me there!
I felt strongly the best visual the government has developed to date was the 2011 “MyPlate” visual that actually put eating patterns, portions, and servings in the framework of an actual plate, which the last time I checked, is how most Americans eat meals.
Why change what was never broken to begin with is my question? Just keep the visual as closely relatable to how people actually eat period!
What It Got Right & Wrong
Portions remain the same as in the past editions, making standardized servings sizes for all food groups. This consistency helps to create familiar portions and serving sizes for all single-ingredient food sources.
This gets harder when multiple ingredients are combined, but it’s still a good place to become familiar with exactly what one serving of most foods looks like.
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) needed to be singled out as a health risk. Strong science supports increasing consumption of UPFs leads to overconsumption of calories, weight gain, decreased feelings of fullness, and increases in at-will food consumption due to the hyperpalatability (tastiness) of these food products.
I will caution people to make sure they understand the difference between UPFs, versus a highly processed, or minimally processed food products.
Processing is not inherently bad; in fact, many common health foods are processed, such as milk, yogurt, natural peanut butter, whey protein, granola bars, cheese, and even applesauce.
Health Equity. Looking at the analysis of the new DGAs through the lens of health equity. This view gave needed attention to unique groups of people within the American population that previously were only given marginal attention. Those populations getting more focus include:
- Diabetics (primarily type 2)
- Vegetarians and vegans
- Individuals with chronic disease
- Lactating and pregnant women
- Age based nutritional needs for children, teens, and older adults
Avoid artificial/non-nutritive sweeteners. This recommendation really bothers me since very-little-to-no clinical evidence in humans, short or long term, shows that consuming these are harmful to human health.
I personally use saccharin (Sweet N’ Low) packets daily and have for about 10 years as a substitute for sugar.
If there was clear evidence these were harmful, I would certainly consider removing them from my diet.
The big risk is that people may now believe if they can’t use a low, or no-calorie sweetener, they might as well give up and just consume the real thing anyway, thereby increasing calories, which we know for fact is harmful to human health.
(And by the way, natural sugars from monk fruit, agave and cane sugar aren’t any better than plain old sugar, I hate to tell people.)
Giving proteins and dairy more focus is good, and it matches up with research showing that it’s strongly correlated with healthy outcomes and longevity.
The rise in GLP-1 medications making rapid weight loss possible for so many people is also making protein intake more critical than ever, and adults 65-and-over also require more protein than younger adults to prevent frailty and muscle loss.
It concerns me that the DGAs didn’t do enough to clearly define the differences in the types and cuts of meats, and beef particularly, that are more wholesome and appropriate for sustaining health.
A 10 oz porterhouse is not at all the same as a 10 oz top sirloin, from a nutritional standpoint. As of 2013, 38 cuts of beef qualify as lean, and they should be emphasized far more than other cuts.
Dairy foods got the push forward they needed for some time. Dairy has taken a hit over the past 10 years and have a bad rep.
With misinformation about dairy’s links to autism, asthma, and inflammation, I don’t know how these common unsubstantiated myths stood for so long when the research continues to support the opposite.
My gripe here however is that the new DGAs now push for full-fat dairy, which by itself can be fine, but it should be understood that they have almost twice the calories and considerably more saturated fat as well.
If portions aren’t tightly controlled, overall calories can rise quickly, along with blood markers for cholesterol and triglycerides.
People with lipid concerns should be given more encouragement to consume only low and non-fat dairy foods and beverages, as previous editions have suggested for decades with ample research in support.
I admit my bias; as a born and raised Wisconsinite, I spent 23 years of my life consuming some of the best dairy foods in America, but — my roots aside, dairy is delicious and a nutritional powerhouse that needed to come back into the limelight.
Even now as a (sadly) lactose intolerant adult, I still consume aged cheese, Greek yogurt, some cottage cheese, and ultra-filtered cows milk to obtain the host of benefits that come from regular dairy food consumption as a human being first, and a competitive athlete second.
Other hits the new DGAs got right
- Eat more fruits and veggies daily
- Get more fiber overall but particularly from beans, legumes, and whole grains
- Eat more healthy fats from nuts, seeds, nut/seed butters, fatty fish, and avocados
- Gut health really matters and getting some fermented foods is very helpful
- Whole grains are far better then refined and highly processed grains
- Cooking methods and preparation methods matter
- Hydrate with water most often
- Limit or greatly reduce alcohol
- Reduce or avoid added sugars to as little as possible
Final Thoughts
I close out with the statement that even I will not push anyone I work with to eat in a manner they do not want to.
Outside of children and many teens who would often be just fine living off fast food, sweets, and energy drinks, I do not dictate, lecture, or coerce adults on how exactly to eat even if my intensions are purely for their health and wellbeing.
That battle never works well in the end.
If someone comes to me dead set on one dietary approach or another — and they are convinced it will work for them (against my better judgment), and they show they are 100 percent ready to go now, I will absolutely ride that tide with them.
Personal motivation is golden to work with I find so why waste it. I will compromise with clients and patients if and only if we can agree on some basic principles of dietary success and human health. For me, that is:
- proper energy intake,
- nutrient balance and diversity
- food enjoyment
- dietary feasibility
- long term sustainability
If anyone can check all those boxes, then ANY kind of dietary approach can work, and my experience in the field over 16 years has shown me this repeatedly.
You can be healthy, manage your weight, feel good, prevent disease, and live a long life using many different dietary approaches.
But what works wonders for one person may cause a disaster for another, and I’ve seen this as well.
This is one reason why individualization is rapidly becoming more common. The DGA’s are still a great way to start off in the right direction. They are certainly far better than where most Americans currently find themselves on the Standard American Diet (SAD).
That I can assure you.
