It's time to start the process for reviewing the 4th Edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. On August 28, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced the appointment of the new Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, notice of the committee's first meeting and opportunity to submit written comments.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans is meant to help answer the question, "What should Americans eat to stay healthy." The National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act of 1990 requires the secretaries of the USDA and DHHS to publish the Dietary Guidelines for Americans every five years. The recently elected, 11 member committee will review the current edition of the Guidelines to see if a revision is warranted, and if so, will submit its suggestions to the secretaries for the year 2000 edition.
Members of the committee include: Cutberto Garza, M.D., Ph.D., Cornell University; Richard Deckelbaum, M.D., Columbia University; Johanna Dwyer, D.Sc., R.D., Tufts University; Scott Grundy, M.D., Ph.D., University of Texas-Dallas; Rachel Johnson, Ph.D., R.D., University of Vermont; Shiriki Kumanyika, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., University of Illinois - Chicago; Alice Lichtenstein, D.Sc., Tufts University; Suzanne Murphy, Ph.D., R.D., University of California - Davis; Meir Stampfer, M.D., Dr.P.H., Harvard School of Public Health; Lesley Tinker, Ph.D., R.D., University of Washington; Roland Weinsier, University of Alabama - Birmingham.
The first meeting of the committee was held September 28 and 29. Among new issues discussed were safe food handling, physical activity and weight loss, and dietary supplements messages. For more information, the federal registry can be accessed via the Internet at www.access.gpo.gov.
