The Truth About the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: JANUARY 4, 2021 - The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) misses the mark with its new Dietary Guidelines for Americans released quietly during the holidays. Here I cut through the baloney as I see it, and offer easy ways to improve your diet.

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I am a private chef and culinary consultant with a basic formal education in nutrition and food safety. I am not a certified nutritionist or dietitian, and none of the information here is intended as medical advice. If you are overweight, hypertensive or, suffer from chronic disease and seeking to improve your health, consult your doctor first. If your doctor doesn't recommend a change of diet, find a new doctor.

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The Importance of the Guidelines

While the federal government's nutritional standards may not directly influence how most Americans cook in their own kitchens, they do have far-reaching consequences. The way we feed our country's youth through the National School Lunch Program, for one.

The recommendations are also adopted by the military and determine what participants of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can and can't buy at the grocery store. Given the coronavirus pandemic - in which diseases like obesity are a dangerous risk factor - the lack of solid nutritional advice in the new guidelines is all the more alarming.

Jump to:

• The Importance of the Guidelines
• The Politics
• The Good Advice
• The Biggest Problem
• The Five Fails
• The Art of the Tip-Toe
• Healthy Recipes
• Way More Than Random Recipes

The Politics

To anyone versed in food politics and the role of the USDA, the betrayal of sound, scientific recommendations come as no surprise. But that doesn't make it less frustrating. The USDA operates under a severe conflict of interest, tasked with both setting dietary recommendations for all Americans. And supporting the food industry.

The Good Advice

I will acknowledge the 2020-2025 dietary guidelines for Americans are not 100% wasteful. For the first time, the USDA segmented its advice into five sections based on the human lifespan. It also promotes a varied diet of nutrient-dense foods. And even acknowledges this can be accomplished with any style of ethnic cuisine.

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Eat for your age. In new advice, the USDA acknowledges people have and require different best practices in eating depending on their age. This seems obvious, that yes, a teenage boy needs to eat very differently from his grandpa, or his pregnant aunt. But, hey, we'll take it. Sections in the new guidelines prescribe diets based on the specific needs of infants and toddlers, children and adolescents, adults, pregnant women, and adults over 60.

Keep toddlers away from sugar. The guidelines recommend breastfeeding infants exclusively for the first six months. And keeping toddlers under 2 years old away from any sugar. This may seem common sense to any parent with little ones. But it's nice to see the USDA finally admit babies shouldn't eat sugar.

The Biggest Problem

What the USDA didn't do in regard to sugar is follow the advice of a panel of experts it recruited. The panel released their collective recommendations in the summer, one of which was for adults to limit added sugar to 6% of total daily calories. And the USDA failed to incorporate this advice into the new guidelines.

The Five Fails

#1. Allowing for refined grains.

Under no circumstance should refined grains be a part of anyone's diet. Think white bread, bagels, and bleached wheat flour. If the USDA won't say it, I will. Avoid these like the plague. Processed, ultra-refined starches and high-carb diets are linked to many chronic diseases, and you're better off without them. You don't need to be a dietitian to know that cereal laced with brightly-colored marshmallows has no place on the breakfast table.

Better Choice: If you're wondering, then, how do I bake and what do I eat? Check out my gluten-free recipes, replace white flour with whole wheat, or check out these tips and techniques to help you cut out grains if your doctor recommends a ketogenic or paleo diet. Don't worry, there are still desserts.😄

#2. "Limit" added sugars.

Added sugars—Less than 10 percent of calories per day starting at age 2. Avoid foods and beverages with added sugars for those younger than age 2."

-USDA Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025

The problem here isn't the advice to limit added sugars (sugar didn't earn the nickname "the white death" for no reason). It's the fact that added sugars are allowed at all on a daily basis. The best advice would be to only consume refined sugar on occasion. But that would fly in the face of keeping the sugar industry and its lobbyists happy.

Bottom Line: The above advice allows for giving 30 grams (120 calories worth) of added sugar to a toddler who eats 1200 calories a day.

That's the equivalent of three cookies. Everyday.

Let's let that sink in a moment.

How to Eliminate Added Sugar

Don't get me wrong, I love a French macaron or chocolate cake as much as the next person. But sugar-laden foods should be reserved for occasional - not every day - enjoyment. If you can kick refined white sugar and its terrible cravings to the curb once and for all, your health will thank you for it.

Better Choices: There is a reason refined sugar is in most processed foods: it's addicting. It creates a vicious cycle of first spiking blood insulin levels and then activating cravings for even more sugar. The best alternative, if you are looking for a sweetener, is raw honey. I also like coconut sugar, which I use in my paleo chocolate chip cookies. But we can't kid ourselves, coconut sugar is still processed sugar. It's just a bit less glycemic than white sugar.

#3. Swapping vegetable oil for butter.

I think this is where they really lost me. It's not so much the act of replacing butter with oil. It's the kind of oils listed. Olive oil, for instance, is chock full of beneficial fats. But vegetable oils like canola and blended soybean oils should, like added sugars, be avoided like the plague.

Better Choices: For clients and my family, I cook and bake with organic and/or pastured (or European) butter. The only oils in my pantry are avocado, olive, and coconut, with olive oil seeing the most action. Safflower and sunflower oils are great for high-heat cooking.

#4. Only half of the grains eaten should be whole.

Grains, at least half of which are whole grain."

-USDA 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines

Correction: ALL the grains we eat should be whole grains. Refined grains are not wholesome food. This is more nonsense disguised as health advice to prevent backlash from the processed food industry.

Processed white flours and starches - yes, even gluten-free ones - are pretty much void of nutritional value. Even whole wheat bread spikes blood sugar nearly as badly as white bread. Because all starch and sugar break down to the same micronutrients (sugar molecules) in the body.

Better choices. Legumes like lentils and navy beans, and grains like quinoa and oats contain more fiber and protein compared to refined products. Choose sprouted grains if you can find them. As sprouting breaks down an acid that prevents full absorption of a grain's vitamins and minerals.

#5. Consuming fat-free and low-fat dairy.

It's probably safe for me to write that the USDA will never remove dairy as a recommended food in its guidelines. But truly, dairy is not an essential food group. You can get all the essential vitamins and minerals in dairy from meats and vegetables. It's a common allergen, slows digestion, and can be mildly addicting (though not as vengeful as sugar).

Bottom Line.: We don't need dairy. Especially young children. But don't tell the milk industry.

Best Choice: My boys rarely, if ever, drank cow's milk as toddlers. And I like to think they're better off for it. Broccoli and dark leafy greens are much better sources of calcium than dairy. And vitamin D is best sourced naturally, with moderated sun exposure. In the winter, a supplement may be a good idea but check with your doctor.

Better Choices: I for one appreciate a nice milk foam in my coffee. And cultured, fermented dairy can be a delicious probiotic addition to any diet. But since reduced-fat milk and yogurt have a higher percentage of carbohydrates per glass, logic points to whole-fat dairy. Even better? Organic whole milk and unsweetened yogurt.

My favorite milk? Organic, grass-fed whole milk.

The Art of the Tip-Toe

The new USDA dietary guidelines contain the phrase "nutrient-dense" 158 times, and this is a great message. Yet many of the referenced foods, like those with added sugars and refined grains, are anything but nutrient-dense. To be clear, refined grains and added sugars are polar opposites of nutritious.

The revised nutritional guidance also ignored the most convincing scientific evidence presented by its own panel. And that perhaps is the greatest disappointment of all.

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Healthy Recipes