In a first step toward a new edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the government proposed a list of questions for experts to consider, addressing such issues as obesity, the consumption of ultra-processed foods, and strategies for diet quality and weight management. Two hot-button issues — alcoholic beverages and sustainable food production — will be considered in separate processes, it said.
Comments on the proposed questions will be accepted through May 16, said the USDA and HHS, which share responsibility for the Dietary Guidelines. In coming months, a panel of experts will be appointed to dive into research that will help guide work on the 2025 edition.
“There are two topics not on the list of questions … that will be addressed in separate processes,” said the USDA and HHS, which described alcohol and sustainability as high-priority topics.
Alcohol, which “requires a significant, specific expertise and has unique considerations,” will be examined separately by HHS agencies, said the two departments. Sustainability “and the complex relationship between nutrition and climate change … also requires specific expertise. HHS and USDA will address this topic separate” from the Dietary Guidelines panel.
The panel that wrote the 2015-2020 guidelines ran into a buzz saw of complaints for trying to connect nutritious diets with environmental health. Then-House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway, from the No. 1 cattle state of Texas, said the panel had strayed from nutritional evidence to dabble in “areas like sustainability and tax policy.”
The 2020-2025 guidelines recommended that Americans, if they drink alcohol, limit consumption to two drinks a day or less for men and one a day or less for women.
The current Dietary Guidelines are available here.