The 2015 Dietary Guidelines, at long last

They are now online in a version that takes up dozens of screens with annoying drop-down boxes.  It’s hard to navigate, and if it’s searchable, I can’t figure out how. First the good news.  These Dietary Guidelines—for the first time—attempt to focus on foods and dietary patterns: Previous editions of the Dietary Guidelines focused primarily on individual dietary components such as food groups and nutrients. However, people do not eat food groups and nutrients in isolation but rather in combination, and the totality of the diet forms an overall eating pattern. Why Oops?  Because these Dietary Guidelines, like all previous versions, recommend foods when they suggest “eat more.” But they switch to nutrients whenever they suggest “eat less.” If the Guidelines really focused on dietary patterns, they wouldn’t pussyfoot.  They would come right out and say: Recall that Congress weighed in with an Appropriations Bill that called for an investigation of the scientific basis of the Guidelines and granted $1 million to the National Academy of Medicine to take them over. So let’s count the 2015 Guidelines as a win for the meat, sugary drink, processed, and junk food industries. I might have more to say when I can look at a document that is easier to read. Full disclosure: I was a peer reviewer on an earlier version of this document.