The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

Independent research. Not affiliated with any government, agency, or company.

Agency

2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee

Findings that rest on exhibits naming this entity

  • AGR-4.4: In 2015 the House Appropriations Committee wrote that the advisory committee's report "included extraneous factors and policy recommendations that are outside of the statutory requirement, such as agriculture production practices including sustainability, taxes, food labeling and marketing policies." Public Law 114-113 section 734 then barred release of the 2015-2020 guidelines unless each guideline "is based on significant scientific agreement" and "is limited in scope to nutritional and dietary information." On 6 October 2015 Secretaries Vilsack and Burwell announced that sustainability would not be in the guidelines "because this is a matter of scope."
  • AGR-4.5: The 2015 advisory committee recommended dropping the 300 mg per day dietary cholesterol limit, and the 2015-2020 guidelines dropped it. Both kept a ceiling of 10 percent of calories from saturated fat.
  • AGR-4.6: The BMJ published Nina Teicholz's critique of the 2015 advisory committee report on 23 September 2015, issued clarifications on 29 September, corrected one statement on the saturated-fat evidence in October, and did not retract it. The article states that the expert report "fails to reflect much relevant scientific literature in its reviews of crucial topics and therefore risks giving a misleading picture." The committee said it "strongly disagrees with many of the statements represented as facts." The article's competing-interests note states that Teicholz is a board member of the Nutrition Coalition, which funded the 2022 study in section 4.7, and that the article was fully funded with a grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.

Exhibits naming this entity

  • Exhibit 543 February 2015. 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee: Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee
  • Exhibit 545 23 September 2015. Nina Teicholz, The BMJ: The scientific report guiding the US dietary guidelines: is it scientific? (BMJ 2015;351:h4962)
  • Exhibit 546 29 September 2015. Retraction Watch: Following criticism, BMJ 'clarifies' dietary guidelines investigation
  • Exhibit 547 28 October 2015. Retraction Watch: BMJ corrects controversial critique of US dietary guidelines report