U.S. Dietary Guidelines Not Based On Current Science, Journalist Says

The nutritional science on which the latest version of U.S. Dietary Guidelines is based may be outdated and misleading, according to a journalist writing in a scientific publication. Nina Teicholz argues that the guidelines, based on an expert report by a 14-member advisory committee, do not reflect recent scientific findings. For example, the committee said the association of saturated fats with heart disease is strong. But the panel did not review scientific literature on saturated fats from the past five years that had failed to confirm a link between sat-fats and heart disease. Teicholtz says that the committee’s analyses of nutritional study findings were less than rigorous, and may simply have relied on the outdated conclusions of industry-funded organizations like the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. The article has prompted a congressional review of the expert report.