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In August, the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee issued its
newest recommendations on what Americans should be eating. For the first
time, the committee concluded that a diet higher in plant-based foods and
lower in animal-based foods is both healthier and better for the
environment. Their official recommendations for a “healthy dietary pattern”
put vegetables, fruits, and whole grains at the very top the list and pushed
red and processed meats to the very bottom.
The 571-page report provides an in-depth look at what Americans are eating,
and states that “the quality of the diets currently consumed by the U.S.
population is suboptimal overall and has major adverse health consequences.”
The committee found a large gap between a healthy diet and the standard
American diet: “On average, the U.S. diet is low in vegetables, fruit, and
whole grains, and high in sodium, calories, saturated fat, refined grains,
and added sugars.”
The Committee’s Findings on the Standard American Diet:
For the first time, the committee also included environmental sustainability
in its recommendations. They mentioned that a diet lower in animal foods is
not only healthier, but is also better for the environment:
“Quantitative modeling research showed how healthy dietary patterns relate
to positive environmental outcomes that improve population food security.
Moderate to strong evidence demonstrates that healthy dietary patterns that
are higher in plant-based foods, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains,
legumes, nuts, and seeds, and lower in calories and animal-based foods are
associated with more favorable environmental outcomes (lower greenhouse gas
emissions and more favorable land, water, and energy use) than are current
U.S. dietary patterns.”
The Meat Industry Is Unhappy
The beef and animal agriculture industries are upset, saying that an environmental agenda has no place in nutritional guidelines. The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) says the meat advice is “flawed” and “nonsensical,” and it even launched a change.org petition to urge people to protest the new dietary guidelines. The petition states, “Hot dog, sausage, bacon and salami lovers throughout the land stand together as Americans in favor of a balanced diet that includes meat and poultry of all kinds.”
Sources:
Naomi Imatome-Yun is the managing editor of Forks Over Knives. A food, health, and wellness editor with over 15 years of experience, her work appears in USA Today, Dining Out, and Art Culinaire. Naomi is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, and has served as a food expert for About.com for 8 years.
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We began this archive as a means of assisting our visitors in answering many of their health and diet questions, and in encouraging them to take a pro-active part in their own health. We believe the articles and information contained herein are true, but are not presenting them as advice. We, personally, have found that a whole food vegan diet has helped our own health, and simply wish to share with others the things we have found. Each of us must make our own decisions, for it's our own body. If you have a health problem, see your own physician.