Are the Dietary Guidelines given to us really in our best interest?

By Shannon Pierce

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines. You may not THINK that they impact you or that you live your life by those standards. However, they truly do impact the way that Americans eat, considering they regulate the information on our food labels, the lunches that our children eat at school, and the advice our doctors give us about our diets.  They may impact you more than you think.  However, how can you really predict what the perfect diet recommendations are for each person across America? Not an easy feat. That is why the U.S. Dietary Guidelines are currently being examined, and even accused of not using strong scientific research to back their claims.

 

A British Medical Journal published Wednesday said the report used to set the guidelines could be biased or not based off of complete current research. Food journalist, Nina Teicholz wrote in the journal about the 2015 report, claiming the scientific standards were weak, making the guidelines vulnerable to “internal bias as well as outside agendas.” Although this journal may not send Americans to the grocery store, changing the way that they eat everyday, it may begin to raise more research about the U.S. Dietary Guidelines and more questions about what a truly healthy diet consists of.

 

This years dietary guidelines used existing evidence, rather than conducting new reviews and examining new evidence.  Researchers argue that there are conflicting results about the link between eating saturated fat and heart disease, and that the U.S. dietary guidelines may have overstated the health risks involved with consuming saturated fat. She also argues the guidelines committee understated the importance of a low-carb diet.

 

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines Committee fires back, explaining they examine their evidence and the health effects of various diets over long periods of time. The studies that the committees use have to meet a long list of criteria to be examined. The problem is, these committee members have founded their careers on some of the studies in the past, and they may have invested in certain types of brands within the food industry throughout their careers. New studies may harm their individual revenues, they could have a conflict of interest and they could be understating the facts.

 

So what are the consumers to do? Find a diet that works for your body and your lifestyle.  Everything in moderation. Also, you may not want to be getting your health information from one source, but by cross-referencing various sources. Bon appetit!  

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