The Dietary Guidelines for Americans were first released in 1980. It was established when Congress passed the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act, which mandated the Dietary Guidelines be published jointly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) every five years.
Currently, we are under the 2020-25 edition of the guidelines until the 2025-30 guidelines are released.
I think when the guidelines were first released, consumers could see value and read through them while making up their own minds about what to eat.
Remember in 1980 when we didn’t have all of the fast-food drive-ups and processed foods in the grocery stores? We mostly ate in our homes and not in our cars. We all knew what a pot roast was – complete with potatoes, gravy and onions.
Maybe the Kraft Foods Macaroni and Cheese was the start of the processed food era. Now it is hard to find something without sugar or corn syrup in it.
I don’t think people today take much notice of the guidelines, as they don’t like the government telling them what to eat. It will make news for a day or two, but mostly people are talking about what they don’t want us to eat anymore, which has gotten so political.
If one looks at the makeup of the guidelines committee, they seem to be younger people who work at universities with PhDs. I would guess they all grew up in cities and don’t know how to garden. Their food and vegetables come in a box once a week. And while I’m not against getting food from a box once a week, most people nowadays – particularly in the cities – just don’t realize where their food actually comes from.
I’m sure some individuals on the committee don’t eat meat of any kind, which is okay, but from the preview of the new guidelines results, they don’t want anyone else eating meat either.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Executive Director of Nutrition and Registered Dietitian Dr. Shalene McNeill points out, “There have been more than four decades of dietary guidelines advice, and during this time red meat consumption has declined, yet obesity and chronic disease are on the rise.”
McNeill goes on to say, “Seventy percent of the calories in the U.S. diet are plant based. Now the committee wants to reduce red meat intake even further, marginalizing the 80 percent of the population who identify themselves as meat eaters. These recommendations put some of the most vulnerable at risk for nutrient gaps, especially older Americans, adolescent girls and women of child-bearing age.”
And now the committee is going after whole milk. We’ve heard for years how whole milk is good for strong bones, but in the last couple editions of the guidelines, we’re supposed to drink low-fat milk from happy cows.
I have to think there are some on the committee who trend towards being an animal rights activist and don’t want cows on the planet. They have never taken time to realize the benefits of a cow and the care it receives.
If one looks at older pictures of people from 40 years ago, there are usually not many overweight people, but nowadays we see more and more overweight people. I think a lot of it is due to the food we eat today.
Dennis Sun is the publisher of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup, a weekly agriculture newspaper available online and in print.
