happy new year everybody! the brand new USDA dietary guidelines were just released
and this always generates a ton of controversy. i completely agree with some of the things they say
and i strongly disagree with others. for those of you not in the US, the USDA guidelines are
the official dietary recommendations for americans. so let's take a look at what foods they recommend
and what foods they don't and what it means for us all. one thing they emphasize is the focus on
dietary patterns, it's not about super foods, no single food is going to make or break your diet
it's about the general pattern. 'do you eat an abundance and variety of fresh fruits
and vegetables' is a much more important question than whether you're eating kale or sesame seeds
specifically. in fact they present three healthy dietary patterns as an example
an omnivorous one, a mediterranean and a more vegetarian. they're not meant to cover every option,
just to illustrate the flexibility that there's a lot of wiggle room within the principles of
a healthy diet. okay so what are those principles? they list six food groups to focus on and four to
limit. the six to favor are fruits and vegetables, not surprising, which they recommend should make
up half of your plate. here's how the average american eats compared to the recommendations
over or under the line. fruit, almost 80 percent of americans undereat fruit. vegetables, almost 90
percent of people undereat them. green vegetables, orange vegetables, legumes, starchy vegetables, you
name it, all massively under-eaten. let's face it, the only vegetables americans crush are potatoes and
tomatoes. the next recommended food group are grains, where at least half are supposed to be
whole grains. now, that probably sounds surprising to a lot of you. half of grains can be refined? and
i agree it sounds high, although it includes most breads, white rice, pasta etc. the other
thing to bear in mind is these guidelines aren't shooting for a picture perfect diet,
it's trying to be realistic for 330 million people who in average eat pretty horribly. now,
online there's this whole current that americans are fat and sick because the guidelines keep
recommending grains but the truth is most people overeat refined grains and whole grains are
massively under consumed. almost no one reaches the recommendations, it's easier to find a unicorn
than an american who eats enough whole grains. they spell it out very clearly: from the first edition
of the guidelines 40 years ago americans have fallen far short of meeting recommendations and
diets high in red and processed meat, sugar and refined grains (so basically the standard american
diet) are associated with detrimental outcomes. i'm not exactly a fanboy of the USDA guidelines,
as you'll see i disagree with plenty, but americans overeat junk, that's not exactly a news flash. the
truth is, if they followed the guidelines on grains, that would actually be a massive
upgrade. now, you might ask, if people just ignore them then what's the point of the guidelines?
and that's a fair question but they do affect a lot of governmental programs like school lunches
and they are the reference for health professionals across the country so
they do carry a lot of weight. okay, the next food group they recommend is dairy, and this is always
very controversial and Canada famously dropped the dairy in their last national guidelines and
started telling people to drink mostly water so this year people asked me on social media if i
thought the US was going to do the same, i was skeptical, and predictably, they didn't. my position
is we should tell people the truth, explain the pros and cons and let them decide. now, one major
issue around all discussions on dairy is the ethics of how the animals are treated
and really, disposed of in the dairy industry and i completely agree it's a massive issue
and i think people should be shown how it's produced but i also think we should tell people
the nutritional facts objectively. a healthy dietary pattern can include some dairy or not
it's a choice. it depends on factors like lactose tolerance, the type, the amount, what else is eaten
etc. so telling people that dairy is poison in any amount, for anyone, like we see online sometimes,
doesn't really reflect the totality of the evidence but neither is the other extreme
of suggesting that dairy is essential and if you don't have any you're in trouble
and these guidelines go too far in this second direction. they show dairy as a key
food group, not as an option among others. they even state "healthy dietary patterns feature dairy", not
"may feature dairy" which would be the accurate statement and would carry a very different
connotation. now, they do include soy milk in this dairy category but not almond milk or rice milk,
oat milk, all the other plant milks, but the truth is none of those are necessary. cow milk, soy milk,
almond milk, they're all optional. and i went on their website and did the quick diagnostic quiz
i entered what i normally eat and the feedback was that i'm doing great on the vegetables and
the grains but i need some help with the dairy. i guess consuming zero dairy is not enough for
them. so this is very misleading, and the quiz specifically asks about greens which i eat daily
but then ignores those sources of calcium, so this is one of my main problems with these
guidelines, this unscientific pushing of dairy as a need, not an option. and i completely understand
we can't just tell 300 million people to drop dairy overnight because if they don't replace
it with other sources of calcium and vitamin D etc they'll run into problems but that's a reason to
inform people of their choices, not to imply that this is an essential food, it's just not scientific
okay moving on, the next recommended group is protein foods which some people don't like
because protein is a nutrient not a food group but i get what they're saying, foods more concentrated
in protein. now, look at the contrast between this section and dairy. they list animal and plant
sources of protein, they explain a dietary pattern can exclude meats if people choose, they even say
eating seafood or beans, peas and lentils more often could help meet recommendations while
still ensuring adequate protein. it's a very different tone from the dairy section. now, it's
well known and understood that the USDA has an inherent conflict of interests. they advise the
population on healthy eating but at the same time they have to protect agricultural interests. Marion
Nestle explains this really well in "food politics" which is a great book i recommend to anyone who's
interested in knowing more about this. a hundred years ago the main causes of death were infectious
diseases and nutrient deficiencies were common so telling people to just eat more of everything was
great for health and great for agriculture, there was no contradiction. but then we beat a lot of
the infectious illnesses and nowadays most of the diseases in the west are tied to over consumption
of some foods so suddenly the USDA was stuck, telling people to eat less of some foods makes
sense scientifically but it hurts agriculture. i mean, it's in the name, the USDA is the department
of agriculture so if they prioritize agriculture that's not exactly a huge surprise. the only
solution long term is for dietary guidelines to be issued by a different organization that
only cares about the science like the institute of medicine, for example. it's the only way forward
and finally the last recommended group is oils, which what they really mean is unsaturated fat
they include nuts and seeds and seafood and avocado in that group. now the four foods of
concern that they advise limiting: added sugars, keeping them under 10% of calories and even less
for small children; saturated fat also under 10% of calories and favoring unsaturated, especially
polyunsaturated fats instead. completely agree, we went over the evidence very recently
sodium, ideally under 2,300 milligrams a day, and finally alcohol, under two drinks a day for men,
one for women. there was controversy over sugar and alcohol, that maybe limits should be even
lower, and i think it's a reasonable argument. now, one thing the guidelines innovated on, they issued
recommendations for small children. here's the gist: during the first six months they recommend
breast milk exclusively, at six months starting to introduce a variety of solid foods from those six
groups we looked at and continuing with breast milk if possible at least for the first year
and longer if desired and if not possible then an iron fortified formula. let me know if you're
interested in nutrition specifically for kids, this year i want to invite specialists on to talk about
different topics including some pediatricians so stay tuned for that. and to wrap things up here
are my predictions, what i think will change in the next version of the guidelines. for the first
time ever, we'll see environmental impact of foods considered. they ignored it this year but, i mean,
this is a no-brainer, there are no healthy humans on a destroyed planet. we'll also see an increased
emphasis on plant sources of protein, i mean we're already seeing it in some of the wording
and this is only going to increase with time to reflect both the health data
and the environmental science. the recommendations won't be plant exclusive or anything like that
but more and more plant centered. and dairy will finally lose some emphasis and be presented as an
option not a necessity. will i get everything right? will i nail it? is it going to be a huge miss?we'll
find out. in the meantime, if you want to get a head start, here are my top seven sources of plant
protein and some good alternatives for calcium, let me know your thoughts take care, see you next time