New dietary guidelines offer flexibility in healthy diet choices
The federal government has released the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-25 — dubbed Make Every Bite Count — stressing they use a framework to customize as needed for individual needs, including cultural traditions and budgets.
The Dec. 29 release of the Dietary Guidelines for A coincided with a redesign of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate.gov redesign, which retains the “half a plate” guideline for fruits and vegetables, recommending eating a variety of vegetables and a focus on whole fruits. The USDA is offering a Start Simple with MyPlate app, allowing consumers to set daily food goals.
The DGA focuses on four over-arching guidelines:
- Follow a healthy dietary plan at every stage of life;
- Customize nutrient-dense food and beverage choices for personal preferences, cultural traditions and available budgets;
- Focus on meeting food group needs (fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy and fortified soy alternatives, and proteins) and stay within calorie limits; and
- Limit foods/beverages higher in added sugars, saturated fat and sodium, and limit alcohol consumption.
In announcing the guidelines, USDA and Health and Human Services officials said they avoid being prescriptive. Instead of assigning specific servings, the guidelines focus on caloric intake and a variety of food groups. The guidelines include recommendation for age groups, outlining health benefits for healthy eating from birth through 23 months, children and adolescents, adults (including older adults) and women who are pregnant/lactating.
The DGA include the “85-15 Guide:” with 85% of calories each day from vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy and protein, and 15% of calories from added sugars and saturated fat.
The document includes examples of healthy meal plans for throughout the day.
According to the HHS, Americans in all age groups fall short of adhering to the dietary guidelines, with an average of 59% in all age groups meeting the standard, as measured by average total Health Eating Index scores.
While most of the recommendations from a scientific advisory group working on the guidelines for several years were adopted, measures to decrease suggested alcohol limits (from two a day to one a day for men) and lowering added sugar from 10% to 6% of daily calories, were not adopted. The HHS said there is “emerging evidence” to support those changes, but it is not definitive enough to warrant a change from the current standards for alcohol and sugar.
The DGA does advise children under 2 years old to avoid sugar, and that drinking fewer alcoholic beverage is a healthier choice for adults.
Industry Reaction
Groups representing the fruit and vegetable industry applauded the new DGA, but said that program alone won’t budge consumption.
The Produce for Better Health Foundation noted the science behind the DGA recommendations on the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables but acknowledged health messages aren’t driving consumption.
“We’ve got to find a different way to make the planet’s favorite plants craveable,” Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, PBH president and CEO, said in a statement. “PBH’s consumer-facing Have A Plant Movement and corresponding digital ecosystem offer
a new and different approach by tapping into how Americans feel about healthy eating and, most importantly, what they can do to create new fruit and vegetable habits. We call this PBH’s Know-Feel-Do Behavioral Framework.”
Max Teplitski, the Produce Marketing Association’s chief science officer, said PMA submitted comments to the DGA advisory
committee that stressed the need for investment in effective interventions.
“... (W)e are all aware that consumption of fruits and vegetables continues to decline overall in the U.S. and we believe bold action within the Dietary Guidelines roll-out to modify consumer behavior is needed and will require coordinated policy changes,” Teplitski said in a statement.
Tom Stenzel, president and CEO of the United Fresh Produce Association, said similar guidelines in the past haven’t improved consumption.
“The Dietary Guidelines mostly repeat what we already know about healthy eating,” Stenzel said in the statement. “Now is the time for the political will to actually implement this critical public health advice throughout all federal food programs
Related content
For more coverage of the DGA, see statements from these industry organizations:
The Produce Marketing Association
United Fresh Produce Association
