Dear Readers,
In hindsight, we all seem to have 20/20 vision, for had we heeded Senator McGovern’s simple report in 1977 calling for Americans to “Reduce Consumption of Meat”; we probably would have a much lower prevalence of chronic illness in the country today. By allowing the food industry a seat at the table, dietary guidelines released since 1980 have been less “nutrition” but more food-industry friendly with disastrous consequences.

Throughout these columns since our inception, we’ve called for blunt and actionable messages rather than the vague and confusing messages so typical of the last 3 decades. Based on scientific research, we’ve called for doing away with the nutrient-based approaches of yester years and substituting it with food based guidelines to promote global health. The just released 2010 U.S Dietary Guidelines do just that in conveying the importance of maintaining calorie balance to sustain a healthy weight and on building healthy eating patterns such as making fruits and vegetables cover half of the plate at a meal, choosing fat-free and low-fat dairy products and eating more whole grains and seafood.

Going forward to 2020, we see this as a global phenomenon; countries such as Thailand, Philippines and Chile have already been quite successful in the development and implementation of their latest food based guidelines. In India, at the National Institute of Nutrition, Dr. Sesikeran and his team have made tremendous strides and are expected to release their much-awaited guidelines within weeks.

For India this is good news indeed.

Sincerely
Sunil S. Jhangiani, MD, MBA, FACP, AGAF
Founder, Medical Director, NutritionVista.com