Sustainability Measure Dropped as Congress Questions Polarizing 2015 Dietary Guidelines

The suggested dietary guidelines for 2015 have stirred up some major controversy. (Photo: Getty Images)

On Wednesday, members of the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing on the government’s proposed dietary guidelines, grilling Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on the plan, which is due out later this year.

This year’s guidelines — which drew a record-breaking 29,000 comments over a months-long public feedback process — have been subject to much scrutiny, because they include some major changes: The new advice no longer expresses concern about dietary cholesterol, and also eases up on salt restrictions. It also includes recommendations on limiting our sugar and meat intake. The guidelines are updated every five years.

But the most controversial portions of the original draft — a sustainability measure that suggested Americans consider the environment when deciding what foods to eat and a soda tax to help cut sugar consumption — were both dropped this week in response, some say, to food industry pressure.

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack appearing before the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday. (Photo: Getty Images)

During the proceedings, Rep. Collin Peterson (D - Minn.) pointed out that the guidelines once said that butter and eggs were bad for us, and now we’re told they’re OK. He also noted that the same can be said for full-fat milk.

“People may be losing confidence in these guidelines,” Peterson said. “Given the public’s skepticism, maybe we should reconsider why we’re doing this.”

But Burwell argued that most dietary guidelines haven’t changed. “The consistency over time for most issues has been there,” she said. “In some cases science does change.”

What are we supposed to think? Here are the main issues addressed by the meeting, plus expert input on each:

The Removal of Sustainability Recommendations

Vilsack and Burwell on Wednesday that said that suggestions that the guidelines include sustainability aspects are outside the scope of the guidelines. Consequently, they will not be included.

That news was welcomed by the meat industry — environmental groups, however, were not happy.

“This is about politics, not science,” Marion Nestle wrote in Food Politics, citing an analysis by legal expert Michele Simon that concludes the USDA and HSS would be well within its legal limits to include sustainability.

“We are disappointed,” Sujatha Jahagirdar, a policy specialist with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s food and agriculture program, tells Yahoo Health. “There’s no question that diet and sustainability are linked.”

Research has shown that raising animals for meat uses much more water than raising similar plant-based foods. “One hundred and six gallons of water goes into making just one ounce of beef; 23 gallons is needed for an ounce of almonds,” says Jahagirdar.

Related: New Report Asserts Major Issues With the 2015 U.S. Dietary Guidelines

There has also been a link between raising livestock for food and greenhouse gas emissions. “If all Americans eliminated a quarter pound serving of beef a week, the reduction in greenhouse gases would be equal to taking four to six million cars off the road,” Jahagirdar says.

“It’s frustrating to see the Obama administration again allow politics to trump science,” Stephanie Feldstein, population and sustainability director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “The decision to treat sustainability and dietary health as separate issues only benefits industry profits while putting our health, our environment and the future of our food system at risk.”

However, Jahagirdar says the guidelines’ recommendation that we cut back on our red meat consumption is “exciting” in that it may impact sustainability, as well as our health.

Eating Less Meat

The new guidelines will recommend a diet lower in red and processed meat, but adds that lean meats can be part of a healthy diet — and this is a topic that Burwell and Vilsack were grilled about by members of the House who represented states with

Alissa Rumsey, registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, agrees with the new recommendation. “Most Americans eat more than the recommended amount of red meat,” she tells Yahoo Health. “While unprocessed forms of red meat are probably OK in moderation, people should try to get a greater share of recommended protein amounts from seafood and plant-based protein such as lentils, legumes, and nuts.”

Related: For a Healthier Heart, Eat … Steak?

She recommends increasing your intake of plant-based proteins and enjoying red meat once or twice a week.

Ansel also urges people to think of red meat more as a side dish (a meatball in spaghetti, an addition to a bean-based chili), and less as a main event in a meal.

Fat and Full-Fat Products

Previous guidelines recommended that we swap full-fat milk for lower-fat options. But that may change. While the shift has left some people (and lawmakers) confused, experts say it’s not a bad thing.

“We now know that total fat itself is not a concern, though type of fat is still important,” says Rumsey. “Evidence shows that when you replace saturated fat with refined carbohydrates, it’s a wash. But when you replace saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat, you see reduction in heart disease.”

Registered dietitian-nutritionist Karen Ansel, co-author of The Calendar Diet: A Month by Month Guide to Losing Weight While Living Your Life tells Yahoo Health that our changing attitude toward fat is a perfect example of the fact that nutrition is an evolving science.

Related: The 20 Best Full-Fat Foods for Weight Loss

“While we don’t need to be overly concerned about mono and polyunsaturated fats, we do need to limit saturated fat as we now know that this type of fat can raise cholesterol levels in our bloodstreams,” she says.

Ansel points out that we don’t have to eliminate saturated fat entirely from our diets; however, we should eat smaller amounts of high saturated fat foods like red meat and full fat dairy. “A good goal is less than 10 percent of total calories from saturated fat, or less than seven percent if you have heart disease,” she says.

For heart health benefits, Rumsey recommends replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats like olive oil, avocados, and nuts and seeds, and reduce your intake of refined carbohydrates.

Dietary Cholesterol No Longer a Villian

Under the new suggested guidelines, dietary cholesterol will not be considered “a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.” It also doesn’t give specific recommendations on how much cholesterol is OK in a person’s diet.

As Peterson mentioned, it’s a surprising turn after the public has been urged for years to cut back on foods high in cholesterol. But Rumsey says the change is consistent with current science.

“The evidence shows no relationship between consuming foods high in cholesterol and blood levels of cholesterol, when looking at a typical American diet,” she says.

Ansel echoes the sentiment: “We don’t have to obsess about cholesterol in food the same way we might have a couple of decades ago.”

An Easing of Sodium Restrictions

The new guidelines will ease up on previously-existing restrictions on our sodium intake.

Under the new guidelines, it’s recommended that people strive to lower their sodium intake, based on evidence from a 2013 report by the Institute of Medicine that found there are no benefits to eating less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day. (The average American eats more than 3,400 milligrams of sodium a day.)

Ansel admits that the message is confusing. “If you ask five different experts about how much salt we need, you’ll get five different answers,” she says. “The take-home message is that we’re all eating too much salt.”

Rather than obsessing over a number, she says we should simply focus on consuming less salt.

In addition to looking at nutrition labels, Rumsey recommends swapping processed foods — which are often high in sodium — with more real, whole foods.

Experts are concerned about how all of these (very public) shifts will impact Americans and their health.

“You really have to wonder about the motivations of the politicians who are suddenly questioning the quality of the dietary guidelines at a time when some of the guidelines are now shifting direction,” says Ansel. “Without the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, our nation’s nutrition policy is going to be like the Wild West.”

However, Rumsey points out that the basic recommendations are still the same: Eat more fruits and vegetables and whole grains, opt for lean meats, and limit your intake of sodium, sugar, and saturated fat.

“Research does evolve, and as time goes on there is a chance to evaluate more longitudinal studies,” she says, “which is why these guidelines are looked at every five years.”

The new dietary guidelines are due by the end of this year.

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