Isn’t it Time the Dietary Guidelines Met the Nutritional Needs of ALL Americans?

By Jessica Wharton

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) are highly influential, crucially shaping the Nation’s health, yet in the 40 years since the Guidelines were launched that health has declined sharply. Today, 42.8% of adults have obesity, and more than 114 million adults have either pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes.

Reducing sugars and starches has been shown to be highly effective for improving most heart-disease risk factors, including hypertension, and controlling blood sugar—which is crucial for reversing a diagnosis of type-2 diabetes. Yet the 2020 DGA experts ignored more than 65 trials on low-carbohydrate diets. This is not the “preponderance” of evidence the DGA is required to reflect. 

Additionally, recent studies have shown that people with diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic conditions suffer from far higher rates of hospitalization, intubation and death from Covid-19. Today, 60% of Americans have one of these diseases, yet the Dietary Guidelines ignores these populations—the majority—of the U.S. With the Guidelines focused on prevention only, how does this policy serve the “general public” as Congress intended?

We urgently need a low-carb option in the Guidelines.

Our national nutrition policy must address the decades-long epidemics of obesity and diabetes, which cause untold suffering, cost billions, and make Americans far more vulnerable to the pandemic of Covid-19. It’s time the Guidelines met the nutritional needs of ALL Americans.

There is still time to ask Congress to delay the Guidelines until low-carb science is reviewed, and we’ve made it easier than ever to contact key Members of Congress. Click here to take action!