Below is Marion Nestle’s take on the “2015
Dietary Guidelines’ hidden advice about sugary drinks: definitely there, but hard to find.”
And after that is a message I just received from a NUTR-MPH alumna who is working ln a statement about the caffeine recommendations in the 2015 Guidelines.
Food Politics
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Posted: 11 Jan 2016 07:46 AM PST I’m indebted to Maria Godoy of NPR’s The Salt for
pointing
out wheQAre in the new 2015 Dietary Guidelines you can find advice about cutting down on
sugary drinks. As she puts it, this is easy to miss. Here’s my wonky analysis. In
my post about the 2015 Dietary Guidelines,
I noted that they are unambiguous about the need to reduce added sugars to 10% or less of calories. But what they say about cutting down on sugary drinks—the leading source of sugars in US diets—is
buried deep in the text. Fortunately, Deborah Noble of slowfoodfast.com has performed a
great public service by producing the 2015 Dietary Guidelines in a searchable pdf format.Here’s
where to find advice about cutting down on sugary drinks: The Executive Summary: See under “Cross-Cutting Topics of Public Health Importance:”
Figure
2-10 explains:
Reading the Figure tells you that beverages comprise a whopping 47% of added sugars (closer to half if you add in sweetened milks, teas, and coffees).
The text following the Figure says:
Strategies? How about just saying: “Cut down on sugary drinks” or “Drink water instead of sugary drinks.” Figure ES-1 in the
Executive Summary illustrates
the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans at a Glance. All it says is:
Figure
3.2 shows Implementation of the Guidelines through MyPlate: “Drink and eat less…added sugars,” but nothing about sugary drinks. This circumspection is weird. Clear, straightforward advice to cut down on sugary beverages has plenty of historical precedent. Both Figures ES-1 and 3.2 are most certainly derived from a
USDA graphic on the MyPlate
website (dated January 2016). This says flat out:
This statement, in turn, derives from: §
The precepts issued with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines
in January 2011 §
The statements issued with the MyPlate graphic in June 2011 §
The USDA’s
May 2012 tip
for making better beverage choices. The
2015
DGAC (Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee) repeatedly urged limits on consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. Statements like this one, for example, appear throughout the document:
Why did the USDA and HHS writing committee choose to waffle about his point? This cannot be an accident. It must be deliberate. And it can have only one explanation: politics. |
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As promised, here’s the message I received from a Nutrition MPH alumna who’s working on a statement about the caffeine recommendations in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines. There does seem to be a controversy "brewing" over coffee drinking as a population-level guidance when there has been some studies showing a clear genetic
component to whether or not one receives a health benefit from drinking coffee…And of course, the rest of the guidance is all about limiting energy drink caffeine intake for the young ......coffee good but caffeine bad? One would have to think Starbucks
is involved, somehow, no? If only I had the time to hunt that down... |