Government Proposes New Dietary Guidelines: Will You Follow Them?

Tell us something we don’t know. The new U.S. government Dietary Guidelines for Americans released this week had some pretty basic suggestions: eat less sugar, salt and fat and more vegetables, fruit and fish.

Time magazine noted that one of the other suggestions tucked into the new guidelines, though, was a novel one: eat less. Not just eat less Twinkies, but eat less in general. It’s one of the first times that the government has explicitly acknowledged the growing obesity epidemic in its nutritional recommendations and it’s got some nutrition experts a bit riled up.

Not because they’re on the Sarah Palin “don’t-take-cookies-from-the-kids” train, but because they suspect there’s some politics at play in suggestions to have half your plate filled by fruits and veggies, but get vague when suggesting you eat less of something.

Instead of saying cut back on sodium, solid fat or added sugars, Food Politics blogger Marion Nestle wonders why the recommendations are not more specific, like eat less red meat, potato chips and soda?

“That's politics for you,” Nestle wrote of the new DGA report, which comes out every five years. “Let's give them credit for ‘drink water instead of sugary drinks.’ That comes close.”

The report does suggest to avoid fatty foods like pizza and cheese, but Nestle still wondered why the onus was put on good nutrition for individuals and not healthier foods from the food industry?

“This is all about personal responsibility,” she argued. “What about the ‘toxic’ food environment? Shouldn't these guidelines be directed at the food and restaurant industries?”

The DGA guides federal nutrition policy, including public education about healthy eating, menus for public schools and food assistance programs. The DGA report encourages four steps to healthier living: a better balance between caloric intake and calories burned, more vegetable and plant-based foods and fish, lower consumption of fatty foods and meeting federal guidelines for physical exercise.

One of the headlines getting the most attention, though, was the recommendation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services to eat less than a teaspoon (2300 mg) of salt each day. Nestle wondered why restaurants were not explicitly asked to serve smaller portions (looking at you Cheesecake Factory!) or to reduce the amount of sodium and fat in processed foods?

Will you follow the new dietary guidelines?