Douglas Luke, the Irving Louis Horowitz Professor in Social Policy at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, was part of a National Academies of Science committee that reviewed how federal dietary guidelines are developed.
The committee focused on the guidelines' importance and found that they must make effective use of improved nutrition data, Luke explained. The committee released its report, Evaluating the Process to Develop the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, in December.
The dietary guidelines and the evidence backing them up have advanced exponentially since the days of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food pyramid, said Luke, director of the Center for Public Health Systems Science.
"We have much better data and understanding of nutrition than the early days, including the recognition that nutrition needs change over the life course," he said.
