Unstable foundation for US Dietary Guidelines
The 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has begun its five-year review of the science behind the government's recommendations for U.S. food consumers -- all of us!
In its latest Salt and Health newsletter, the Salt Institute examines "The Evidentiary Foundation of our Dietary Gudelines " and finds that foundation is built on sand, not rock. The article recounts a 2007 review of the process by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences which confirmed that the scientific review of the diet and disease data was based on the opinions of respected authorities -- the lowest level of evidence -- rather than on controlled trials of dietary interventions. That review drew on a New York Times Magazine story on "Why can't we trust much of what we hear about diet, health and behavior-related diseases?" The Salt Institute endorses an "evidence-based" approach as opposed to the "opinion-based" recommendations produced in the current process.
