← Back to context

Comment by brodouevencode

3 days ago

The new dietary guidelines are much more sensible IMO, compared to the food pyramid or MyPlate.

https://cdn.realfood.gov/DGA.pdf

The scientific report is much more detailed: https://cdn.realfood.gov/Scientific%20Report.pdf

I agree with siblings that nothing jumps out (to my non-expert eye) as "very extreme".

EDIT: Removed long-winded snark after a more careful reading of the linked document.

  • I don't see anything extreme, but the primacy of proteins (and especially meat-based protein) and dairy seem suspicious considering the broader rhetoric coming out.

    • I wonder if a US economy would be able to function if people at scale ate more healthily and sustainably. That would mean less of most things and more of vegetables, legumes, greens, all that unsexy stuff that is much less labour and energy intensive.

      The second order effects of not having to grow food for our food, and grow food for ourselves in the first place instead are probably too negative.

It recommends eating more saturated fats from dairy and meat, both of which are very bad for CVD.

  • "The recommendation to limit dietary saturated fatty acid (SFA) intake has persisted despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Most recent meta-analyses of randomized trials and observational studies found no beneficial effects of reducing SFA intake on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and total mortality, and instead found protective effects against stroke." PMID 32562735 - Jun 2020, Journal of the American College of Cardiology

  • > In general, saturated fat consumption should not exceed 10% of total daily calories. Significantly limiting highly processed foods will help meet this goal. More high-quality research is needed to determine which types of dietary fats best support long-term health.

    • So that ends up being roughly 20 grams of saturated fat. I still consider that quite high, given that there is a strong correlation between saturated fat consumption and CVD.

      7 replies →

> Protein serving goals: 1.2–1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, adjusting as needed based on your individual caloric requirements.

it's crazy the us gov put this out and is still using kilograms for this formula

  • anyway, i don't find anything here that stands out or is obviously against the consensus, other than recommending tallow as a cooking fat. i don't see any signs of seed oil extremism or sat fat trutherism otherwise. there's even this line about limiting sat fat:

    > In general, saturated fat consumption should not exceed 10% of total daily calories. Significantly limiting highly processed foods will help meet this goal. More high-quality research is needed to determine which types of dietary fats best support long-term health.

> To Make America Healthy Again, we must return to the basics.

Who knows, these guidelines might indeed be sensible, but anything labeled “Make America Healthy Again” has no scientific credibility.

  • The dumb marketing label lowers the credibility that I'll expect to find good science in it. It in no way defines what the actual scientific credibility should be though.