Dietary Guidelines favoring wealth over health? USDA and HHS urged to investigate disparities

17 Aug 2022 --- The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit organization with more than 17,000 doctor members, is demanding an urgent investigation into the problematic Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025 to 2030 development process in a formal request.

The Committee sent a letter to the inspector generals of the US Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS), stating the agencies consistently failed to prioritize human health and address racial disparities within nutrition when developing the Dietary Guidelines.

“The Dietary Guidelines include nutrition recommendations which favor the economic interests of the food industries in many ways,” Anna Herby, nutrition education program manager, Physicians Committee, tells NutritionInsight.

Questionable history
This is not the first time the industry has been accused of being overly involved in the implementation of the Dietary Guidelines. Earlier this year, the HHS and the USDA sought feedback from the public on the scientific questions the guidelines should include.

“By intentionally and repeatedly using obscure language in critical aspects of the Dietary Guidelines process, HHS and USDA have deceived and harmed US citizens for decades, compromising public health interests in favor of promoting specific food products.”

The USDA and HHS need to investigate the health disparities within the Dietary Guidelines.“For example, they use technical terms like ‘saturated fat’ and ‘solid fats,’ which aren’t helpful terms for most US citizens looking to choose more healthy foods, instead of talking about meat, eggs and dairy,” adds Herby. “These are the main sources of solid and saturated fats in typical diets. Telling US citizens to avoid ‘saturated fat’ isn’t as helpful as telling US citizens to avoid ‘processed meats’ or even more specific, ‘bacon.’”

Ignoring health issues in favor of industry
The Physicians Committee submitted a petition for investigation in May in response to a series of proposed scientific questions HHS and USDA jointly released in April, which are meant to direct the preparation of the Dietary Guidelines for 2025 to 2030.

According to the Committee, the suggested questions ignore the health issues brought on by meat and dairy products, favoring the industry.

“It seems intentional that Dietary Guidelines want to avoid discussing the detrimental effects of consuming these foods – and placate industry in the process – by using these terms instead of referring to the specific foods that contain these fats,” says Herby.

“There are also no safeguards to ensure industry checkoff programs aren’t submitting nominees to the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee or that industry-sponsored research isn’t being used to develop the guidelines. To be clear – our petition is asking for an investigation because this industry influence is continuing to be ignored by USDA and HHS.”

Impact on racial health disparities
Additionally, the proposed questions from the HHS and USDA intentionally steer clear of topics that are important to African American health, such as foods linked to significant disparities in colorectal, prostate and breast cancer mortality, the letter notes. As a result, these topics won’t be included in the future amendment process.

According to the Committee, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans favor the economic interests of the nutrition industries.“Colorectal cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer take disproportionate tolls among African Americans, and the foods causing these trends should be foremost among the issues considered by the Dietary Guidelines,” Herby explains.

“The same is true for cardiovascular disease and stroke. Lactose intolerance is prevalent among people of color – but the agencies have glossed over this normal condition in previous dietary guidelines.”

“A much more specific emphasis on equity is required to ensure the Dietary Guidelines are effectively addressing the critical health disparities in this country,” she adds.

In its legal action, the Physicians Committee demands that the Dietary Guidelines stick to their original goal of promoting public health rather than the meat and dairy industries.

The document claims that “the agencies have inappropriately designed these questions to skew the revision of the Dietary Guidelines firstly away from a discussion of the health risks posed by meat and dairy products, secondly away from the health problems these products pose for persons of color, and thirdly away from the benefits of plant-based diets, all to the detriment of public health.”

Conflicts of interest and health inequality
In other developments, researchers noted that Dietary Guidelines for Americans have conflicts of interest and transparency is needed. The researchers stress that reliable food recommendations come from an unbiased and scientifically supported process.

Previously, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Health asserted that a plant-based diet might improve the expanding health inequities in the US. The group of physicians urged the Biden-Harris administration to emphasize the advantages of plant-based diets and ingredients.

By Nicole Kerr