In January, U.S. government officials released the new 2015-2020 Dietary
Guidelines for Americans (DGAs), a set of national nutrition standards
that guide food labeling, school lunch menus and public nutrition
programs. The guidelines, which are revised every five years, are based on
evolving nutrition science, and serve as the government’s official advice
on how we Americans should be eating. But there’s one big thing missing
in the guidelines: the connection between food, human health and the
environment. And its absence could have profound effects for our planet.
What’s new?
THE 2015 DGAS don’t look radically
different than the 2010 guidelines,
or any of the other guidelines that
have come out the last 35 years.
Recommendations remain in place for
eating more fruits, vegetables, whole
grains, and less saturated fat. But
there are three modifications worth
mentioning:
Crackdown on sugar.
No more than 10 percent of daily
calories should come from added
sugars. For most Americans, that
means cutting sugar intake by
nearly half-to no more than 12
teaspoons a day on a 2,000-calorie
daily diet. This is the first time the
DGAs set an upper limit for added
sugar intake, and importantly, it
means that the amount of “added
sugars” will for the first time be
included on the upcoming revised
Nutrition Facts label.
Fat type matters.
The upper limit for total dietary fat
has been removed, with a greater
emphasis on consuming certain
kinds of fat (unsaturated-olive
oil, canola oil, nuts, avocados,
oily fish, eggs) and avoiding others
(saturated-dairy, fatty cuts of beef,
pork, lamb, processed meats, lard,
margarine, coconut oil).
Cholesterol is decriminalized.
The latest official advice on dietary
cholesterol is that it does not play a
major role in blood cholesterol. In
other words, the kind of cholesterol
in the foods we eat isn’t the driving
factor for the kind of cholesterol
doctors care about.
Overall, this edition of the DGAs puts
a greater emphasis on lifelong eating
patterns that contain adequate essential
nutrients, a caloric intake that supports
a healthy body weight and foods that
reduce the risk of chronic disease.
Sounds pretty good, right? Until you
hear about the recommendations
that got left behind, namely, that
sustainability be entered into the
equation.
The 2015 DGAS: An abridged timeline
June 2013
The U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) and
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
(USDA) Dietary Guidelines Advisory
Committee begins to draft the 2015
guidelines.
One of the five subcommittees
focuses on “Food Sustainability and
Safety.” This is the first time the word
“sustainability” is used in relation to
the guidelines, and it attracts attention
from both supporters and opponents.
February 2015
The conversation heats up when the
U.S. Office of Disease Prevention
and Health Promotion (ODPHP)
releases a scientific report of the
2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory
Committee that includes a section
on “Food Sustainability and Safety.”
It reads, “Current evidence shows
that the average U.S. diet has a larger
environmental impact in terms of
increased greenhouse gas emissions,
land use, water use, and energy use,”
when compared to “a diet higher in
plant-based foods.”
May 2015
The public comment period on the
scientific report of the 2015 Dietary
Guidelines Advisory Committee
closes. By then the HHS and USDA
secretaries have received hundreds of
letters from doctors and NGOs (nongovernmental organization) supporting
recommendations to eat more
plant-based foods and some 29,000
comments are submitted and posted to
the health.gov website. An analysis of
the comments shows “overwhelming
support for including sustainability”
and recommendations for reducing the
amount of meat in U.S. diets.
October 2015
On Oct. 6, HHS and USDA secretaries
publish a joint blog explaining why
sustainability won’t be included in
the new dietary guidelines, writing,
“There has been some discussion this
year about whether we would include
the goal of sustainability as a factor
in developing dietary guidelines.
(Sustainability in this context means
evaluating the environmental impact
of a food source.)” But, they conclude,
“we do not believe that the 2015
DGAs are the appropriate vehicle for
this important policy conversation
about sustainability.”
December 2015
Congress passes the 2016 federal
budget spending bill, which includes
an amendment directing that no
money be spent on new dietary
guidelines unless the HHS and USDA
ensure that the guidelines are based on
“significant scientific agreement” and
are limited to “nutrition and dietary
information.”
January 2016
The new guidelines are released.
They do not include explicit
recommendations to reduce meat
consumption, instead emphasizing a
“shift towards other protein foods.”
Nor, in the 209-page document is
there a single mention of the word
“sustainability.”
A great disconnect
What we see in the language of
the new guidelines is the continued
divorcing of foods from their sources, a
reduction of whole ingredients to their
molecular makeups, and the absence of
a holistic picture of human health as it
relates to the health of the planet.
This is a problem because there’s a
complex relationship between diet and
the environment; what’s good for us
health-wise isn’t always what’s best for
the planet. Eating a “rich variety of
fruits and vegetables” can sometimes
mean choosing produce that’s traveled
a long way, or that requires a lot
of water. The recommendation to
“incorporate seafood as the protein
choice in meals twice per week in
place of meat, poultry or eggs,”
doesn’t address where that fish will
come from in a world with fewer and
fewer fish every day. And there are a
lot of nuances associated with meat
production that totally get left out;
grass-fed animals that graze where
nothing else could grow turn that land
into a productive ecosystem that also
sequesters carbon in a way that tilled
fields do not. But it also takes longer
for them to get to market, which
means more methane production over
their lifetime. As you can see, things
get complicated quickly.
And without some guidance from
our latest Nutritional Guidelines,
navigating these tradeoffs can be
tricky. There are a lot of bad options
out there, but here at the Wedge,
we’ve never been able to think about
nutrition without thinking about
sustainability. It’s been our mission
going back 40 years to provide foods
that support both human health and
the health of the planet, by sourcing
the best possible selections of foods
thoughtfully grown and raised by
vendors who care.
An alternative approach
So we’ve attempted to do
something the government hasn’t:
make a few dietary recommendations
that consider the environment. Bear
in mind, we’re not nutritionists;
these are more food for thought than
anything else.
- Eat a variety of proteins.
Different kinds of meats have
different carbon footprints, mostly
due to how the animals were raised,
what they ate, and how much
methane they produced. Beef and
lamb tend to have a bigger impact
than pork and poultry, while plantbased proteins like lentils and beans
contribute even fewer emissions. By
mixing it up, you both ensure that
you are getting the necessary proteins
you need for a healthy diet, and are
making choices that are better for
the planet. The Wedge sources from
local, grass-fed farms for many of our
meat products and strives to provide
you with options that minimize
harmful environmental impacts. - When you can eat local.
Local produce means fewer
transportation miles, which means
less fuel has been used, which means
less extraction of nonrenewable
resources from the Earth’s crust.
It also means fewer green-house
gas emissions; transportation as an
industry contributes to 28 percent of
global emissions. Buying local helps
in other ways as well. As the heatstressed American West continues
to grapple with years of drought,
choosing produce that’s grown locally
in the Midwest helps reduce the
demand for produce that’s grown on
an ever-shrinking water table. It might
mean giving up romaine lettuce in the
winter, but it also means finding new
ways to enjoy foods grown right in our
backyards-like carrots, rutabagas,
and other root vegetables. The Wedge
works with dozens of family farmers
to bring you the very best in local
fruits, vegetables, dairy, eggs, and
responsibly raised meats, so you’ll
always have delicious options! - Try going vegetarian a few days a week.
Current evidence shows that the
average U.S. diet has a larger
environmental impact in terms of
increased greenhouse gas emissions,
water use, land use, and energy use,
as compared with diets that include
less meat. So do the Earth a favor, and
strive to incorporate more vegetarian
meals in your routine. There are some
excellent sources of plant-based protein
you can find at the Wedge-from
lentils, beans and quinoa in the Bulk
section to locally made tempehs and
tofus in the cold case. Plus, it’s a great
opportunity to hit up our diverse and
well-stocked Produce aisle! - Choose your seafood carefully.
A moderate amount of seafood is an
important component of a healthy
diet. It’s a source of lean protein and
beneficial fatty acids. But the collapse
of some fisheries due to overfishing in
the past decades has raised concern
about the ability of our oceans to
produce a safe and affordable supply
of seafood. To meet current and
future demands, farm-raised seafood
will be needed, despite concerns
over environmental impacts. A good
general rule of thumb for choosing
farmed seafood is to stay low on the
food chain. Filter feeders like oysters,
mussels, clams and scallops are
great choices because they’re carbon
footprints are so low-very close to
zero. When choosing wild species,
look for well-managed fisheries here
in the U.S. and use consumer guides
like Seafood Watch from the Monterey
Bay Aquarium to inform your choices.
Or just ask your friendly Wedge
Meat & Seafood staff-they’re very
knowledgeable about sourcing and can
help you make the right choice.
*If you have special needs or dietary
guidelines laid out for you by a
physician, please don’t change your
eating patterns without first consulting
him or her.
Sources:
- Civil Eats
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations - Harvard University, School of Public Health
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- My Plate, My Planet
- National Public Radio
- “Energy use, blue water footprint, and
greenhouse gas emissions for current
food consumption patterns and dietary
recommendations in the US.” Environment
Systems and Decisions (2015) - “The importance of reduced meat and dairy
consumption for meeting stringent climate
change targets. Climatic Change (2014). - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
and U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2015-2020
Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 8th Edition - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scientific
Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines