Academy Represents the Profession at Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee Meeting

01/24/2020 - In oral comments presented this week during the meeting of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee, the Academy encouraged the committee members to address adult nutrition needs in their recommendations in light of the recent GAO report. According to the report, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ “plans to focus on older adults in a future update to the Guidelines but has not documented a plan for doing so,” and recommends that “documenting such a plan could help ensure guidelines better address the needs of the population.” The Academy respectfully encouraged the advisory committee to identify opportunities to address these issues now, enabling a more robust plan to be developed and solidified in advance of the 2025-2030 guidelines. In addition, the Academy reminded the committee of the importance of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans in food security programs and services.

The 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which includes ten members of the Academy, has held four public meetings to “examine the science related to the topics and questions on nutrition and health identified by” the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. The Academy plans to represent members at the final meetings scheduled for March and May 2020.