Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Yeah.

But, but has the government got it wrong? Geez, look at the Dietary Guidelines for America.

You know that story?

That's one of my favorite topics.

So in the 1970s, this senator, George McGovern, somehow got in his head that the government needed to be in your pantry.

Mm.

So first of all, the Dietary Guidelines for America are the first time any government anywhere, as far as I know, stuck its fingers in the pantry, which, until that day, was the realm of mommy and grandma.

They're the ones figuring out what was in the pantry, right, and what you're supposed to eat.

Um, so I'm just gonna talk a little bit about some of my previous research, some new research that I'm doing, and basically the theme that is tying everything together is why is nutrition advice so wrong? Why is it so out of sync with the science? And I think the only way to really understand this is not, uh, innocent incompetence, but I think there are a number of forces working behind the scenes that influence nutrition science, and it's been my work really more intensively recently to try to uncover and document some of those influences so that they really can be better understood.

So just to review, here are the US Dietary Guidelines.

This is the food pyramid.

We now use an image called MyPlate, but this is the one that I think best expresses what our guidelines recommend, that big bottom slab of grains, breads, much smaller proportion for animal foods, and the teeny tiny amount of fat in the tip of the pyramid.

I have a little more pepper, my beardie may have a little more salt.

But, you know, we definitely grew up in the era of the food pyramid, right? Dietary guidelines released by Food and Drug Administration every year under Health and Human Services Department of our government.

It's gone through some evolutions.

You know, this time it was kind of the plate, you know, having a level plate.

But recently, the newest Dietary Guidelines for Americans was released back in January of this year, of 2026.

And there's some changes that have been made.

I do a lot of public speaking.

I sit in a lot of public speaking events, so I can appreciate brevity and being succinct and getting to the point.

I'm your host, Rachel Robertson.

I'll kick off today's episode with details on why a physician group is suing the US government over the most recent dietary guidelines.

Then Cheryl Clark will break down how a new NIH policy may impact article processing charges.

Lastly, Joyce Frieden will share key takeaways from her interview with a pediatrician running in the race to succeed the late South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

Cheryl will take the host seat for this first segment.

A physician group has filed a lawsuit against the government over the most recent dietary guidelines.

The suit alleges that HHS and USDA botched the process.

Rachel Robertson is here to tell us more about it.