Government nutritionists play politics with guidelines

The federal government is currently in the process of rewriting its official Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the original source for the Food Pyramid, MyPlate, and other versions of its formal nutrition recommendations.

This time around, the process has attracted criticism from concerned observers as government advisers have expanded their focus to examine not only the impact of different foods on human health, but also the “long-term health of the planet.” This new focus is outside the mandate of the dietary guidelines and entangles two very different policy objectives under the guise of food policy. Unfortunately, just this month, the Obama administration has doubled down on this folly by appointing a radical environmentalist to oversee the implementation of the guidelines.

Angie Tagtow, a self-styled “environmental nutrition consultant,” was recently appointed executive director of the USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. The agency’s role is to implement and market the government’s nutrition policy agenda. If her past statements are any indication, Tagtow could use her new position to advance fringe environmentalism and push the agency further from its food- and nutrition-focused mission.

Historically, the executive director of CNPP has always been a PhD with extensive experience in food science and public health. Tagtow, however, arrives with neither a doctorate nor a career background in mainstream nutrition policy. Instead, the new director has spent her career as a crusader for ecologically and socially progressive agriculture. Tagtow’s “good food movement” puts the niche concept of “sustainable agriculture” ahead of sound dietary science. Her track record suggests that Tagtow will spend her tenure as executive director more concerned with pushing an activist environmental agenda on Americans than with helping people take simple, feasible steps toward healthy eating habits.

Tagtow’s first major project at CNPP will be oversight of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which is currently meeting to set the 2015 dietary guidelines. The committee is tasked with examining food science to set the amount of calories, fats, carbohydrates, proteins and other nutrients that comprise the ideal diet, and recommending the types and amounts of food (grains, meats, vegetables, etc.) that Americans should eat to consume these nutrients. Evidence of the DGAC’s work can be seen on the “Nutrition Facts” label on the back of every package of food sold in America.

Any mistakes or misguided decisions the committee makes will affect the way millions of people eat. In the past, for instance, the creation of a grains-dominated food pyramid emphasized an unbalanced diet, recommendations that continue to negatively impact the public health in this country today.

The selection of a CNPP director with a generous interpretation of the scope of “nutrition policy” only further radicalizes this year’s DGAC, which the government had already stacked with a homogeneous group of career academics with minimal experience working in the real world of food science. The agenda of these professors isn’t founded in dietary science but in personal politics — they promote veganism because they believe it’s “sustainable,” not because any research has shown that a plant-only diet is healthier than a conventional diet.

Ideally, the CNPP executive director would be able to rein in a drifting committee and refocus it on its mission, but Tagtow seems more likely to encourage the DGAC professors to continue down their radical path and implement its misguided ideas. If the committee’s final guidelines are imbalanced and rooted in environmentalist mantras instead of food science, low-income Americans who rely on government assistance will see their diets upended.

The role of government nutritionists isn’t to force Americans to make radical changes to their eating habits to fit a narrow, elitist worldview. Rather, it’s to work to recommend a healthy and accessible diet, based on sound nutrition science, in order to help people make better nutritional choices. The DGAC has an opportunity this year to help millions of people live better by choosing a balanced diet that fits their budget and lifestyle. Instead, the committee seems more interested playing politics — and its new leader looks unlikely to change that course.

Erik Telford is senior vice president of the Franklin Center for Government &Public Integrity.