For Immediate Release
March 6, 2020
Contact: press@nutritioncoalition.us
Nutrition Coalition Urges Congress to Ask Secretary Perdue How USDA Will Address The Obesity Epidemic in Rural America
Obesity Rates Significantly Higher in Rural Counties, Dietary Guidelines Have Failed to Stem Sharp Increase in Nutrition-Related Diseases
Washington D.C. – With the obesity epidemic continuing to rise dramatically in rural communities across the country, today the Nutrition Coalition, a group that aims to bring rigorous science to nutrition policy, is urging Congress to ask U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) intends to address the epidemic in the next iteration of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) when he appears in front of the House Committee on Agriculture this week. Secretary Perdue will testify in front of the House Committee on Agriculture on Wednesday at 10:00am.
The federal government has published the Dietary Guidelines—the principal policy guiding diet in the United States—with the goals of promoting good health, helping Americans reach a healthy weight, and preventing chronic disease. However, since the launch of the DGA in 1980, the incidence of chronic, diet-related diseases in America has dramatically increased. Adult obesity rates have doubled; childhood obesity rates have nearly tripled; and two-thirds of American adults are now overweight or have obesity. The CDC has also found that obesity prevalence is significantly higher among adults living in rural counties.
“Our nation’s dietary guidelines are based on weak scientific evidence and because they focus mainly on “healthy Americans,” exclude over 60% of the population who have a nutrition-related disease. With nearly one in five Americans living in rural areas, and half of the country expected to have obesity by 2030, our nation’s dietary guidelines must account for all Americans, not just for those who are healthy,” said Nina Teicholz, Executive Director of The Nutrition Coalition. “Congress must urge USDA to reform the guidelines so that they are based on the best and most rigorous science. Only then will they be able to help Americans fight nutrition-related diseases.”
Saturated fats, for example, have been limited by the DGA for decades, however there is no strong scientific evidence that links these fats to cardiovascular or total mortality.
Responding to this lack of evidence, a group of leading nutrition scientists, including three former members of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, earlier this month challenged the current recommendation to limit the consumption of saturated fats, agreeing that the most rigorous and current science fails to support a continuation this policy.
Members of the group wrote a consensus statement on saturated fats and also sent a letter regarding their findings to the Secretaries of USDA and HHS. The letter urged USDA-HHS to give “serious and immediate consideration to lifting the limits placed on saturated fat intake for the upcoming 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.”
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