Search results: dietary guidelines

5 food experts making sense of MAHA’s vision for a new way of eating

Marion Nestle

Marion Nestle, a nutritionist at New York University, molecular biologist, and the author of more than dozen books, has been a prominent voice on nutrition and advocate for food policy reform for years. But as a New York Times headline recently declared, “At age 88, she’s meeting her moment” in the MAHA-verse.

Nestle isn’t on board with all of Kennedy’s food concerns — she’s pretty neutral on seed oils, for example. But they share many criticisms of the food industry, arguing that the rise of addictively delicious, nutritionally deficient ultra-processed foods is linked to higher obesity levels in the U.S. and favoring measures like banning soda from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. (Nestle wrote the book on the soda industry’s threat to public health, 2015’s “Soda Politics.”) As such, Nestle’s commentary is a valuable guide to understanding the logic behind Kennedy’s proposals, whether or not you agree with them.

It’s actually six others: Dariush Mozaffarian (Tufts), Susan Mayne (former FDA official), Eri Schulze (UPSIDE Foods), Jerold Mande (Nourish), and Helena Bottemiller Evich (Food Fix).

I’m happy to be in their company.

I’m struck by the harshness of the USDA’s recent press announcement:  In First 100 Days, Secretary Rollins Puts Farmers First, Reverses Woke Priorities of Biden Administration

“It is absurd that while the Biden Administration was driving up inflation, American taxpayers were forced to fund billions in woke DEI initiatives. American farmers and ranchers don’t need DEI, they need reduced regulations and an Administration that is actively putting them first. In the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, USDA has done exactly that, by cancelling over 3,600 contracts and grants saving more than $5.5 billion. I look forward to finishing our work of cleaning out Biden’s bureaucratic basement and moving forward with this Administration’s priorities that put American farmers first,” said Secretary Rollins.

The statement boasts that Secretary Rollins

• Issued a memorandum to rescind all DEI programs and celebrations.
• Directed USDA to review Inflation Reduction Act funding to ensure that programs are focused on supporting farmers and ranchers,
• Terminated 597 grants, which totaled more than $3.45 billion and over 3,000 contracts totaling $1.8 billion…in unnecessary and wasteful spending.
• Canceled nearly 1,000 employee trainings, more than 750 of which focused on DEI alone.
• To ensure that taxpayer dollars are directly supporting farmers and not serving as a Green New Scam slush fund for non-governmental organizations, Secretary Rollins announced the cancellation of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC).

I am having a hard time understanding how these actions will help farmers and ranchers, especially because one of the cut programs was the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant, which paid farmers to provide fresh food to schools—a totally win/win program costing a tiny fraction of USDA’s budget but of inestimable worth to participating local farmers.

The anti-woke rhetoric reminds me of the McCarthy anti-Communist era.  If Biden did it, it’s bad.  If it helps vulnerable Americans, well, it’s “leftist ideology.”

I do not see how any of this will Make America Healthy Again.

If you think it will, please explain.

Thanks again to Jim Krieger of Healthy Food America for sending this one.

The study: Sievenpiper JL, Purkayastha S, Grotz VL, Mora M, Zhou J, Hennings K, Goody CM, Germana K. Dietary Guidance, Sensory, Health and Safety Considerations When Choosing Low and No-Calorie Sweeteners [LNCSs]. Nutrients. 2025 Feb 25;17(5):793. doi: 10.3390/nu17050793.

The greater sweetness intensity of LNCSs compared to sucrose allows for the use of lesser amounts to achieve a similar level of sweetness, facilitating a reduction in an individual’s caloric and sugar consumption. Furthermore, the substitution of LNCSs for sugar supports individual and public health outcomes by addressing issues related to obesity, diabetes, and chronic illnesses…Lastly, emerging evidence from in vitro and a randomized controlled trial have investigated food intake and satiety management and suggests that natural LNCSs may be beneficial…The diverse range of LNCSs available in global food and beverage choices, coupled with their varying sweetness intensities, offers enjoyment and pleasure to consumers on their respective health and wellness journeys.

Conflict of interest statement: The following authors are employed at Ingredion, Inc.: Margaux Mora, Jing Zhou, Katie Hennings, and Kristen Germana. The following authors received an honorarium from Ingredion, Inc. for professional services provided: John L. Sievenpiper, Sidd Purkayastha, V. Lee Grotz and Cynthia Goody. Dr. John L Sievenpiper has received research support from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Research Fund, Province of Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and Science, Canadian Institutes of health Research (CIHR), Diabetes Canada, American Society for Nutrition (ASN), National Honey Board (U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] honey “Checkoff” program), Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences (IAFNS), Pulse Canada, Quaker Oats Center of Excellence, INC International Nut and Dried Fruit Council Foundation, The United Soybean Board (USDA soy “Checkoff” program), Protein Industries Canada (a Government of Canada Global Innovation Cluster), Almond Board of California, European Fruit Juice Association, The Tate and Lyle Nutritional Research Fund at the University of Toronto, The Glycemic Control and Cardiovascular Disease in Type 2 Diabetes Fund at the University of Toronto (a fund established by the Alberta Pulse Growers), The Plant Protein Fund at the University of Toronto (a fund which has received contributions from IFF among other donors), The Plant Milk Fund at the University of Toronto (a fund established by the Karuna Foundation through Vegan Grants), and The Nutrition Trialists Network Fund at the University of Toronto (a fund established by donations from the Calorie Control Council, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and Login5 Foundation). He has received food donations to support randomized controlled trials from the Almond Board of California, California Walnut Commission, Danone, Nutrartis, Soylent, and Dairy Farmers of Canada. He has received travel support, speaker fees and/or honoraria from FoodMinds LLC, Nestlé, Abbott, General Mills, Nutrition Communications, International Food Information Council (IFIC), Arab Beverage Association, International Sweeteners Association, Calorie Control Council, and Phynova. He has or has had ad hoc consulting arrangements with Almond Board of California, Perkins Coie LLP, Tate and Lyle, Ingredion, and Brightseed. He is on the Clinical Practice Guidelines Expert Committees of Diabetes Canada, European Association for the study of Diabetes (EASD), Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS), and Obesity Canada/Canadian Association of Bariatric Physicians and Surgeons. He serves as an unpaid member of the Board of Trustees of IAFNS. He is a Director at Large of the Canadian Nutrition Society (CNS), founding member of the International Carbohydrate Quality Consortium (ICQC), Executive Board Member of the Diabetes and Nutrition Study Group (DNSG) of the EASD, and Director of the Toronto 3D Knowledge Synthesis and Clinical Trials foundation. His spouse is a former employee of Nestle Health Science and AB InBev.

What are healthy diets? Joint statement by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization

What this is about:

Healthy diets promote health, growth and development, support active lifestyles, prevent nutrient deficiencies and excesses, communicable and noncommunicable diseases, foodborne diseases and promote wellbeing. The exact make-up of a diet will vary depending on individual characteristics, preferences and beliefs, cultural context, locally available foods and dietary customs. However, the basic principles of what constitutes healthy diets remain the same.

The guiding principles: Adequate, Balanced, Moderate, Diverse.

Here’s what they mean by Balance:

The actual guidelines are discussed under the Moderate principle.

• Sodium: restrict to 2 grams/d (5 g table salt)
• Sugars: restrict to 10% or less of daily calories.
• Saturated fat: restrict to 10% of calories, with no more than 1% from trans fat

FAO and WHO duck making a clear statement about the next two issues, although their implications are clear.

• Red and processed meat: even low levels may have negative health consequences
• Ultra-processed foods: these have negative health consequences

I wish they had stated these recommendations more clearly.  Yes they are controversial with big industries lobbying against any suggestion to eat less of these foods, but these agencies, or at least WHO, should put public health first.

I recognize that these agencies have constituencies of nearly 200 countries, many with strong meat and ultra-processed food industries.  I also recognize that the agencies have no power other than leadership to get any of those countries to do anything.

They at least stated what they thought.  It’s up to country governments to take action.  I hope they do.

Last week, the USDA issued new rules for the nutrient content of school meals and also child care programs.

These apply to sugar and sodium (nutrients), whole grains (ingredient or food),  and milk (food).

The New York Times report on this cut right to the chase

The Agriculture Department announced on Wednesday that it had finalized the regulation it had first proposed in February 2023, having weakened several provisions after feedback from food companies, school nutrition professionals and over 136,000 public comments.

The Update to the standards describes the changes and compares them to USDA’s original proposals.

• Sugars: For the first time (I’m not kidding), the USDA set limits on sugars, starting with breakfast cereals (6 grams per ounce), yogurt (12 grams per 6-ounce serving), and milk (10 grams per 8-ounce serving).  This allows chocolate and other flavored milks if companies get the sugar down to 10 grams.
• Sodium: beginning July 2027, sodium will be reduced by 15% for lunch and 10% for breakfast from current limits (USDA proposed 3 consecutive reductions of 10% over the next five years.
• Whole grains: no change from current standard (USDA proposed that 80% of grains be whole).
• Milk: Allows flavored fat-free and low-fat.

Comment: The sugar rule is an improvement, even though products still are sweetened.  The weakening of the sodium proposal is troubling.  We badly need to reduce sodium in processed and restaurant foods and need federal leadership for doing so.  USDA caved to political pressure here.  The USDA has a long history of captivity by Big Ag.  Now it looks captured by Big Food.

The food industry complaint is that its products won’t meet these standards.  The school food complaint is that the standards are too hard to meet, the kids won’t eat the food, and it will be wasted.

I have a lot of sympathy for school foodservice.  It’s the only thing going on in schools that has to be self-supporting, and school food programs are hugely underfunded.  And lots of schools don’t have kitchens to must rely on food products rather than real food.

But from what I’ve observed, two kinds of skills are needed for successful school meal programs: the ability (1) to prepare and serve edible healthy food, and (2) to get the kids to eat it.  I’ve seen every permutation.

1. Good food, kids eat it
2. Good food, kids won’t eat it
3. So-so food, kids eat it
4. So-so food, kids won’t eat it

Whenever I hear “the kids won’t eat it,” I wonder where the adults are. From what I’ve seen, if adults care that kids are fed, the kids will eat the food—not all, necessarily, but most.

School food is not just about the food.  It’s about the interactions of school food personnel, teachers, and the principal with the kids.  If the adults think it important and necessary to feed kids healthy food, the program has a good chance of success.  The new USDA standards are a step in the right direction but still have a way to go.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had food standards rather than nutrition standards?  How about mandating numbers of servings of real foods instead of worrying about grams of sugar and milligrams of sodium.

A thought,

Additional Resources

• Comparison Chart: 2023 Proposed Standards vs. 2024 Final Standards
• Implementation Timeline – School Meals
• Implementation Timeline – CACFP & SFSP
• Media Toolkit
  • Infographic: Final Rule for School Meal Standards
  • Infographic: Implementation Timeline
  • Infographic: How We Got Here
  • Video: Rule Overview
  • Video: Added Sugars
• Federal Register notice 

My thanks to Arun Gupta for sending this one from a newspaper in India.

The clipping refers to this article.

• The study: Ostendorf, D.M., Schmiege, S.J., Conroy, D.E. et al.Motivational profiles and change in physical activity during a weight loss intervention: a secondary data analysis.Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act18, 158 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-021-01225-5.
• First sentence : “High levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) are strongly associated with sustained weight loss [1, 2], and current guidelines recommend high levels of PA for weight management .”
• Methods: Participants were asked to follow a weight-loss diet and to do 300 minutes per week of exercise.  The investigators lstudies participants’ motivation levels.
• Conclusion: once exercise supervision and support was removed, adults in the high autonomous motivational profile were protected against the standard attenuation in MVPA following removal of support/supervision.
• Competing interests: “The results of this study are presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. DC reports consulting income from Gelesis, Inc., a company that has developed a weight loss device.  SP has a grant from WW International [formerly, Weight Watchers] unrelated to this work.”

Comment: As far as I can tell, the paper says nothing about exercise being more important than diet.  The study didn’t find any differences in weight among people with different levels of motivation.  We can’t blame the authors for the press account.    But anything that minimizes the need for dietary changes gets pounced on.  Alas.

The latest review of sugars and health has created quite a stir.

• The study:  Dietary sugar consumption and health: umbrella review.  BMJ 2023; 381 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071609 (Published 05 April 2023).
• Method:  The authors evaluated 73 meta-analyses that included 8601 studies, most of them observational (meaning they indicate associations but not necessarily causation).
• Findings: Significant harmful associations between dietary sugar consumption and 18 endocrine/metabolic outcomes, 10 cardiovascular outcomes, seven cancer outcomes, and 10 other outcomes (neuropsychiatric, dental, hepatic, osteal, and allergic) were detected.
• Implications: Low-quality evidence linked each additional serving of a sugar-sweetened beverage per week with a 4% higher risk of gout. Each extra cup per day of a sugar-sweetened drink was associated with a 17% and a 4% higher risk of coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality, respectively.
• Recommendations: (1) Reduce the consumption of free sugars or added sugars to below 25 g/day (this translates to about 6 teaspoons daily). (2) Limit sugar-sweetened beverages to less than 1 a week.

Here’s the headline about the stir:

Experts recommend 6-teapsoon limit to added sugar following BMJ review, industry weighs in:  Recently published research in The BMJ is providing fresh concerns about sugar consumption levels, as some industry stakeholders disagree with the conclusion and CPG brand look to innovate in the low- and no-sugar space…. Read more

And one of the quotes from an industry representative:

…This is a review of existing evidence, and even a well-executed systematic review is only as good as the studies that are inputted. Essentially, garbage in equals garbage out, and it is known that added sugars literature suffers from significant variability when it comes to definitions, intake measurements and control of energy and other diet and lifestyle variables.

Comment: The six-teaspoon recommendation is consistent with World Health Organization guidelines to reduce daily intake of free sugar to less than 10% of their total energy intake, and preferably 5 percent.  The authors admit the evidence is not strong.  But there’s just so much of it, and it’s not going away.

When it comes to sugars, less is better, alas.

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Jim Krieger of Healthy Food America sent me this Food Navigator article titled “Can ultra-processed packaged food play a role in healthy, sustainable diets of the future.”

Uh oh.  Another attack on the concept of ultra-processed foods.  These, you will recall, are strongly associated in observational studies with poor health outcome, and one clinical trial demonstrates them to cause people to eat more calories.

The makers of highly processed foods are understandably worried that the word will get out and people will stop eating them.

Clif Bar to the rescue.

It sponsored a small session to establish guidelines for making highly processed foods healthier: “Making Healthy, Sustainable Diets Accessible and Achievable: A New Framework for Assessing the Nutrition, Environmental, and Equity Impacts of Packaged Foods”

The publication emphasizes flaws in the concept of “ultra-processed,” an approach it says

lacks the nuance needed to holistically evaluate packaged foods within recommended dietary patterns. Additionally, there is considerable diversity of opinion within the literature on these topics, especially on how best to improve nutrition security in populations most at risk of diet-related chronic disease. In support of addressing these challenges, 8 sustainability and nutrition experts were convened by Clif Bar & Company for a facilitated discussion on the urgent need to drive adoption of healthy, sustainable diets; the crucial role that certain packaged foods can play in helping make such diets achievable and accessible; and the need for actionable guidance around how to recommend and choose packaged foods that consider human, societal, and planetary health.

Acknowledgments: “Staff at Clif Bar & Company developed the meeting agenda, synthesized all prework inputs, participated as observers in the workshop, and assisted in the gathering of the materials used to prepare this manuscript.”

Here is an ingredient list for an oatmeal raisin walnut Clif Bar:

ORGANIC ROLLED OATS, ORGANIC BROWN RICE SYRUP, SOY RICE CRISPS (SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, RICE FLOUR, BARLEY MALT EXTRACT), ORGANIC ROASTED SOYBEANS, ORGANIC TAPIOCA SYRUP, ORGANIC CANE SYRUP, ORGANIC RAISINS, CHICORY FIBER, ORGANIC SOY FLOUR, WALNUTS, SUNFLOWER AND/OR SOYBEAN OIL, NATURAL FLAVORS, SALT, ORGANIC CINNAMON, MIXED TOCOPHEROLS (ANTIOXIDANT).

My definition of ultra-processed is that you can’t make it in your home kitchen because the ingredients are industrially produced and not available in supermarkets.  By this definition, the soy rice crisps are ultra-processed and maybe chicory fiber, but that’s about it.

The Clif people must be worried that they will be viewed in the same category as seriously ultra-processed snack foods.

Let’s give them and their parent company, Mondelez, credit for full disclosure.

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