Tag Archive for: Dietary Guidelines

The Bottom Line on a Low-Fat Diet

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In this final look at the opinion article in JAMA, I’m going to cover another statement the author made along with some thoughts on the article and why it matters.

In the article, he suggests that, based on the theory that carbohydrates do not cause weight gain, public health policy was changed to encourage the use of more starch and sugars (1). Specifically he cited Healthy People 2000 Nutrition Goal 2.15, which recommended that food manufacturers “increase to at least 5,000 brand items the availability of processed food products that are reduced in fat and saturated fat . . .

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Is Sugar the Problem?

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The questions I left you with on Thursday were related to the press and scientific reaction to the article about the sugar industry published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Was it worth all the press on CNN, Time, and even Treehugger.com? I don’t see it that way and I’ll explain why.


The Article

The paper in JAMA was not a study (1); it was a review of correspondence and papers published in the 1950s and 1960s. It was more investigative journalism than science . . .

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Why the Experts Hate the Dietary Guidelines

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One more time, I hope that you’ve taken the time to read the link I gave you for the 2015 Dietary Guidelines. It’s a summary that’s easy to read. Is there more information? Absolutely, good information, and you can spend some time looking around using the links in the left hand side of the summary. I especially love the section on what Americans currently eat. Do you know that adults eat less than one serving of whole grains a day? And men . . .

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Why You Should Follow the New Guidelines

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Did you do your homework? Did you read the Executive Summary of the Dietary Guidelines as I asked you to do on Monday? If not, do it right now: click on the link below and take the 10 minutes to check it out before you read on.

Here are my thoughts.

There are really no arguments with the five Dietary Guidelines. They’re intentionally vague, but they resound in my mind. For example, the first recommendation says to eat healthy over a lifespan. That implies you should consistently eat healthy—not just kale, because it’s the hot new veggie . . .

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The 2015 Dietary Guidelines

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Before you begin reading, answer these questions: What are the Dietary Guidelines that were published in 2010? Can you remember any of them? Can you remember even one of them?

The 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines were published late last week. Research was reviewed. Meetings were held. Comments were given. Experts have given input. Millions of dollars were spent. Is there anything groundbreaking in the 2015 Guidelines? You’ve probably heard about some of the changes: eggs are okay again, the current sodium intake is not, and we should lower our sugar intake. But that’s headline stuff.

Here’s what . . .

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The Bottom Line on the Saturated Fat Debate

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Finishing up this look at saturated fat and the Dietary Guidelines, those who oppose the limit on saturated fat argue that saturated fat is not related to cardiovascular disease. They go on to argue that if fat is limited, carbohydrates will take their place—and high carbohydrate intake is the real cause of obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.

Before I go any further, if you’re reading this at home, write down three of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines that you remember. How about two? One? Exactly. Unless you’ve just taken a course in healthier eating, you don . . .

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Handpicking the Data

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I’m continuing my look at a recent paper that called into question the process for limiting saturated fat intake to less than 10% in the new Dietary Guidelines (1). What else should we know about how the conclusions were derived and who wrote the op-ed? Let’s start with the author.

Nina Teicholz is an investigative journalist and accomplished writer and has more of a scientific background than most health and nutrition writers today. That’s great, but it’s just not good enough. After reading the article, I watched a TEDx talk she gave. She has a . . .

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Saturated Fat Debate

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The new Dietary Guidelines for 2015 have stirred a lot of controversy this year and they aren’t even published yet. The latest headline related to the new Dietary Guidelines has been an op-ed piece written by a journalist and published in the British Medical Journal (1). It has everything a good mystery has: potential conspiracy, implied payoffs, big business, ignoring facts. I’m going to take a look at it this week.

The paper The Scientific Report Guiding the U.S. Dietary Guidelines: Is It Scientific? was written by Nina Teicholz, an investigative journalist who has . . .

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