L-CAN, Nutrition Groups, MDs, and Others Call to #DelayTheDGA in a TweetStorm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2020
Press Contact: Jessica Wharton
jessica@lowcarbaction.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Low-Carb Action Network (L-CAN) rallied nutrition groups, medical doctors and thousands of grassroots Americans yesterday in a TweetStorm calling to delay the Dietary Guidelines’ final report, currently scheduled to be released in mid-July.

More than 5,000 tweets and retweets were sent during a four-hour period, using the hashtag #DelayTheDGA. The tweets generally expressed concern about the flawed and biased process being used to create the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) as well as the policy’s failure to provide advice for the majority of Americans with a diet-related chronic disease.

“Yesterday’s TweetStorm showed overwhelming consternation with the way the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) has put together its draft report,” said Dr. Mark Cucuzzella, L-CAN Director and a medical doctor. “The report excludes all but one study of the dozens of studies on low-carbohydrate diets and ignores all weight-loss trials. It lacks transparency, is fraught with methodological concerns and ignores the 60% of Americans with one or more chronic condition, such as obesity or diabetes, and who most need reliable dietary advice. The message from the TweetStorm was clear: the final report must be delayed until it includes the best and most current science and provides nutritional guidance for all Americans—not just the small percentage who are considered healthy.”

In addition to tagging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which co-issue the DGA, many tweets also tagged the House and Senate Agriculture Committees and the House Appropriations Committee, citing the need for Congress to exercise its oversight responsibilities over the Dietary Guidelines. The Appropriations Committee may have an interest, since it mandated a review on the DGA process by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, for which it authorized $1M. The resulting 2017 reports, with multiple recommendations on how to make the DGA more “reliable” and “trustworthy” have largely been ignored by the USDA.

“The  charter for the expert committee doesn’t expire until October, which raises the question of why the committee is rushing this process, excluding crucial science, and generating public distrust in our nation’s nutrition policy,” noted Dr. Cucuzzella. “Yesterday’s message is important: delay the Dietary Guidelines’ final report until it is done right.”

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The Low-Carb Action Network is a coalition of doctors, academics, advocates, and Americans with personal success stories, urging U.S. nutrition leaders to include a true low-carb diet as part of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.