Why the New USDA Dietary Guidelines May Not Improve Your Health
Obesity rates, along with cancer and metabolic disease rates, have been increasing over the past 50 years. If you’re one of the 99 millions of people in the US who are overweight you should know this isn’t your fault. You, your family and schools have likely been following the USDA dietary guidelines. These guidelines have increased not just your waistline, but also metabolic disease (like type 2 diabetes) and cancer.
We want to trust that the USDA has our health in mind when creating the guidelines but some of the components of the latest guidelines appear to be at odds with the scientific community.
If you’ve ever watched old shows or movies from the 70’s, like Saturday Night Live or movies starring Chevy Chase or Dan Ackroyd, you’ll notice how thin everyone is.
In 1977, low fat, low cholesterol dietary guidelines were introduced. Saturated fats were replaced with processed vegetable oils, margarine and Crisco. At the same time, non-fat dairy products loaded with sugars were introduced. Sugar was added to make the products enjoyable. Mothers and grandmothers started to throw out their butter and whole fat milk believing these were bad, replaced them with margarine, Crisco and vegetable oils and embraced sugar as a completely innocent component of their daily calories. This is when we first see a spike in obesity[1]. The American population was directed away from butter and lard towards sugar laden low fat processed foods and carbs for the sake of their health. However fat and cholesterol wasn’t the cause of heart disease at all. From that point on, the percentage of the population that’s overweight has grown from 14% to over 70% today [2].
When the Standard American Diet (SAD) Food Pyramid was introduced in 1992, it was built on shaky scientific ground. Similar to the low fat dietary guidelines, the recommendations to eat mostly processed carbs as the base of our diet proved injurious to many. Over the next few years, research from around the world chipped away at the healthy eating message in the pyramid’s base (refined carbohydrates), the middle (meat and milk), and the tip (fats) [3].
So when the latest USDA Dietary Guidelines rolled out, it should have had a large stamp across the front, “Proceed with Caution”.
The latest dietary guidelines were just published last month.[4] There was a group of 20 scientists that came together to develop the latest guidelines. However, industry representatives were also able to influence what was to be published. The sugar industry, dairy industry and alcohol industry and others were present.
One recommended change to the cap on sugar was to decrease the guidelines from 10% of daily consumption of calories down to 6%. The reason is clear. Sugar promotes cardiovascular disease. “We observed a significant relationship between added sugar consumption and increased risk for CVD (Cardiovascular Disease) mortality” according to a 2014 study published in JAMA. [5] The American Heart Association recommends no more than 100 calories from added sugar for women and children and 150 calories per day for men. This translates to 25 grams of sugar for women and children and 37.5 grams for men. This is more in line with the 6% of daily calories recommended by the scientists hired to come up with the new guidelines.
To give you an idea of the AHA recommendations, this would allow you to have one fruit filled Yoplait yoghurt/day, if you’re a woman or child, and nothing more with added sugar. Added sugar is found in processed foods including bread, crackers, meats, cereals, condiments, salad dressings, prepared sauces, frozen meals, pizza, boxed and canned soups and meals and of course flavored dairy and milk substitute products. You can see why the various food industries might want the guidelines to remain high. If you added up what you consume in added sugar it could be closer to 25% of your daily calories.
The second challenge with the new USDA dietary guidelines is the recommended safe amount of alcohol. This is particularly a hot topic today as alcohol sales have increased dramatically due to the pandemic. If the US population stuck just within the guidelines, sales would likely go down dramatically. To drop the guidelines further could mean a huge hit to sales and profits.
The scientists wanted to reduce recommended safe consumption of alcohol for men from 2 servings to 1 per day, keeping 1 serving per day recommendation unchanged for women. Teh USDA chose to not make that change, keeping the 2 per day for men unchanged. This is despite a number of studies showing the link between alcohol and cancer. The CDC states “All types of alcoholic drinks, including red and white wine, beer, cocktails, and liquor, are linked with cancer. The more you drink, the higher your cancer risk.” [6]
Another study, published in 2018, showed the minimum risk for alcohol consumption was 1–2 drinks on 2–3 occasions during a week.[7] This is below the USDA guidelines.
Alcohol doesn’t just contribute to increased risk of cancer, it also increases cognitive decline. According to a UK study following 550 adults over 30 years “Alcohol consumption, even at moderate levels, is associated with adverse brain outcomes including hippocampal atrophy. These results support the recent reduction in alcohol guidance in the UK and question the current limits recommended in the US.” [8]
What does all this mean? The USDA is making compromises between public health and industry profits.
So, what can you do to improve your health and that of your family?
- Reduce sugar to no more than 25 grams per day (in general). To do this effectively you may want to do a pantry cleanout. Mark everything with a large red marker that has added sugar. Rethink your food choices when it comes to cereals, sweetened beverages and sugar laden condiments or sauces.
- Consider choosing no more than three days per week you might consume alcohol with at least one day in between. Drink no more than 2 drinks for each event. Take it a step further and limit drinking two no more than 2 days per week with 2 days in between and a limit of 2 drinks per event. Or you can hop on the Dry January train and go without alcohol for the month of January like I am.
- Eat a whole food, plant forward diet. The base of your diet should not be refined grains, it should instead be vegetables and some fruit in a rainbow of colors.
- Reduce consumption of processed foods allowing yourself one or two cheat meals a week to have that pizza, pasta or canned soup without guilt.
- By consuming real whole foods, limiting sugar, processed foods and alcohol you can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and metabolic disease and increase your lifespan.
Jessica Green is an Integrative Health Practitioner and Health Coach focused on helping busy and time poor professional women take back control of their health so they feel vibrant again. She does this through a combination of functional medicine lab work with diet and lifestyle changes. To learn more about Jessica, visit her at www.jessicagreenwellness.com or instagram @jessicagreenwellness. Interested in working with Jessica? Book a free chat with her using her booking link. https://p.bttr.to/2VI5WSW
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/our-war-on-fat-was-a-huge-mistake-graphs-2013-11
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm
[3] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rebuilding-the-food-pyramid/
[5] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1819573
[6] https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/alcohol/index.htm
[7] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/acer.13886
