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Dairy has strong role in new dietary guidelines
Story Date: 1/14/2016
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Source: PRESS RELEASE, 1/12/16
Friends,
On January 7 the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Health and Human Services released the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs). Dairy remains an important part of the dietary recommendations.
As expected, the new Guidelines allow for flexibility to meet the daily nutrition needs to help people improve and maintain health, and reduce the risk of chronic disease. Low-fat and fat-free dairy foods are included in all recommended healthy eating patterns, with three servings recommended for those ages 9 and up for the Healthy U.S.-Style Pattern, which served as the foundational pattern for the DGAs. (The Healthy Vegetarian-Style Pattern also recommends three servings.)
Other highlights include:
• The DGAs reinforce that three daily servings of dairy foods like milk, cheese and yogurt play an important role in a healthy diet.
• Low-fat dairy foods remain a recommendation of all dietary patterns noted in the DGAs.
• Dairy provides three of four "nutrients of concern" - Vitamin D, calcium and potassium.
• The DGAs do not include dietary cholesterol limits.
Overall this is great news for dairy. DGA recommendations impact school lunch, WIC and other government feeding programs. They also serve as the basis for health professionals' counsel to the public regarding diet and nutrition.
The DGAs still recommend low-fat and fat-free dairy foods. This is not a surprise: As long as our nation faces an obesity epidemic, we know the DGAs will continue to recommend food options, including dairy, with the lowest total calories.
We also know that there is a growing body of research that neutralizes the negative image of milkfat and its impact on health. However, more research is needed to speak to potential health benefits of full-fat dairy foods.
National and local checkoff staff are taking a proactive, comprehensive, integrated approach to share results, highlighting the dairy recommendations with health and wellness partners, industry leaders and other marketplace partners. This includes a joint industry statement from the National Dairy Council (NDC), National Milk Producers Federation, International Dairy Foods Association, and MilkPEP on the NDC website.
These guidelines support the industry's commitment to continue its positive momentum to impact change that helps milk, cheese, yogurt and other dairy products meet the health and wellness needs of today's consumers. They also protect our dairy farmers freedom to operate by keeping dairy in Americans' diets.
Bob Midles
Director of Industry Relations
Southeast United Dairy Industry Association, Inc.
P.O. Box 369 Wake Forest, NC 27588
Direct: 984.235.0640 ∙ Mobile: 770.842.0688
1.800.343.4693 ∙ Fax: 919.324.6709
www.southeastdairy.org
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