Willett & Ludwig Say 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Still Don’t Hit the Mark

Walter Willett, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, and
David Ludwig, Department of Medicine, Children’s Hospital (Boston), have
co-authored a perspective piece in The New England Journal of Medicine titled
“The 2010 Dietary Guidelines—The Best Recipe for Health?” While noting
that some of the dietary guideline changes represent positive progress, they
express concerns about “several components” lacking in “scientific foundation,”
such as burying a recommendation to limit sugar-sweetened beverages
“deep in the guidelines” and continuing to recommend “three daily servings
of dairy products, despite a lack of evidence that dairy intake protects against
bone fractures and probable or possible links to prostate or ovarian cancers.”

Among other matters, the authors suggest that stronger, clear, scientifically sound guidelines require (i) removing primary responsibility for their development from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has “conflicts of interest . . . arising from its institutional mission to promote commodities,” to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Institute of Medicine; (ii) providing more funds to ensure a “comprehensive scientific review”; (iii) conducting all development stages in open meetings; and (iv) writing “guidelines that explicitly state which foods should be consumed less by Americans to reduce risk for chronic disease.”