This is an excerpt reprinted with permission from The Hagstrom Report, a news service providing original national and international agricultural news to its subscribers.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans will be released in January, not December, a spokesperson for Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Thursday.
Burwell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack had said they would release the guidelines in December, but Thursday the spokesperson said, “We are making final preparations, and after consideration, determined that the best time to release the new dietary guidelines was January, given Americans’ focus on healthy eating and exercise around the new year.”
The two agencies trade off in releasing the guidelines, which are issued every five years. This year is HHS’s turn.
An HHS source noted that, even though Burwell and Vilsack set a goal of releasing the guidelines in 2015, HHS and USDA are not required to release the guidelines until the end of January 31.
The guidelines that will be presented “will focus on nutritional and dietary information and reflect current, rigorous science,” the HHS source said.
The omnibus appropriations bill contains measures designed to make sure the guidelines are focused on science.
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