Like those cicada species that emerge en mass on a 13 or 17-year schedule, the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is right on schedule with the federal government’s five-year mandated schedule. The committee is a joint venture of the  U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA).

This week, the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. completed the fifth of five scheduled work sessions for its 20 members, drawn mostly from academic backgrounds. At this point in the proceedings, it’s difficult to say what will be needed in the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The committee is appointed every five years and members are often criticized for conflicts of interest, mostly with the food industry. This year, the non-profit Right to Know said nine of the 20 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee experts have had conflicts of interest in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, or weight loss industries in the past five years. More disclosure is used to settle the issue.

Wine could be on the chopping block as the World Health Organization pushes for prohibition.   Potatoes appear safe, while lactose illnesses in certain minority populations have dairy under the microscope.

The fifth round of committee meetings ending this week were to feature presentations from each subcommittee. The Committee also shared the progress made since the fourth public meeting, including protocol development, evidence review and synthesis, draft conclusion statements, and plans for future Committee work.

The 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee uses three scientific approaches — data analysis, food pattern modeling, and systematic reviews — to examine the evidence on nutrition and health.

As for the dairy issue, the committee is looking at the fact that about 36 percent of people in the U.S. are lactose-intolerant, according to the National Institutes of Health.

And people of color are much more likely to have lactose malabsorption. Worldwide, about 68 percent of people are lactose-intolerant.

The potato industry is concerned about the future of potatoes in this year’s and future  Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra recently sent a letter to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, assuring her there is no intent or effort underway to reclassify potatoes as a grain under the guidelines. 

The USDA and HHS are jointly responsible for updating the guidelines.

“The Dietary Guidelines for Americans is a framework for healthy eating, not a one-size-fits-all mold everyone must fit into,” the letter said. “ The U.S. population is diverse, reflected in what and how we eat. “

And while  HHS and USDA acknowledge that most Americans do not follow the guidelines, the U.S. wine industry is concerned about following WHO. U.S. dietary guidelines say men can safely have two drinks daily, and women can have one. Canada’s dietary guidelines recommend no more than two drinks per week, with polls showing that 66 percent of people aged 21 to 39 said they would cut back.

The current ninth edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) is for 2020-25. For the first time, it includes dietary guidelines for children from birth to 23 months.

At the end of the last five-year exercise, HHS and USDA rejected the advice of the last expert panel that recommended the guidelines set new lower targets for consuming sugar and alcoholic beverages.

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