While the majority of us are looking forward to 2013, the public health and nutrition communities are already looking forward to 2015. The
2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans process has already begun.
Nominations for experts to serve on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee were due last week. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will review the nominations and appoint a committee of nutrition and health experts to make recommendations about the content of the new Dietary Guidelines. The first meeting of the Advisory Committee is planned for April 2013. Over the following 18 months,
committee members will review current nutritional research and make recommendations about the content of a healthy diet for Americans over the age of 2.
After the release of the Advisory Committee’s report, HHS and USDA will prepare a policy document that will guide the nutrition policy of the US government over the following 5 years, which will then be followed by the release of consumer-friendly documents. At this point, the official release of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans is expected to be in the fall of 2015. Additional consumer education materials, such as the “MyPlate” icon (
www.choosemyplate.gov) will then be launched after the Dietary Guidelines.
The Dietary Guidelines is important because not only does it set the standard for nutrition recommendations from the federal government, it also serves as the nutritional basis for federal nutrition programs, such as the school meal programs. This means that meals served to children in schools are required to provide various foods and meet mandates for certain nutrients based on the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines.
Some of the issues that will probably be considered for these Dietary Guidelines include:
- Intakes of sodium, saturated fat and added sugars
- Foods to encourage or limit
- Calcium and vitamin D intake
- Dietary patterns that are associated with lower risk of obesity
- Food reformulation to help meet dietary goals
- Nutrient density of foods and beverages
There will be an opportunity to provide input at every stage of the Dietary Guidelines process and I will be working with IDFA’s Nutrition Working Group to develop comments that support the role of dairy products in a healthy diet. If you’d like to be involved, please send me an email or leave a comment here.
