The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack have announced the appointment of 15 nationally recognized experts to serve on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. The committee's recommendations and rationale will serve as a basis for the eighth edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Steven Abrams, M.D., a past member of the Milk Processor Education Program’s Medical Advisory Board (MAB), is one of the experts named to the 2015 committee. Abrams is a professor of pediatrics and the medical director for the Neonatal Nutrition Program at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He also is an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health.

In addition to serving as a representative for the American Academy of Pediatrics for more than 10 years, Abrams was an integral member of the MAB, reinforcing the role of milk in child nutrition and providing valuable counsel on MilkPEP’s programs and messages. 

He also is an expert on mineral requirements for children, including calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium and copper. He has served on the Institute of Medicine’s Panels on Calcium and Vitamin D and the Use of Dietary Reference Intakes in Nutrition Labeling, as well as the IOM Subcommittee on Upper Safe Reference Levels of Nutrients.

Every five years, the Dietary Guidelines are updated and published jointly by HHS and USDA. The administrative responsibility for leading the process alternates between Departments. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at HHS is the administrative lead for the 2015 process.

The inaugural meeting of the committee is scheduled for June 13-14, and IDFA will be represented at this public meeting. Members can attend the meetings in-person (the sessions will be held at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.) or through a webinar. If you plan to attend in-person or via webinar, you must register at www.dietaryguidelines.gov.

For additional information, contact Michelle Matto, IDFA’s consultant on nutrition and labeling, or visit: www.DietaryGuidelines.gov.