The U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) virtually hosted the fifth meeting of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC or “Committee”) on May 29-30, 2024. Committee members shared progress since meeting 4, including preliminary conclusions from their evidence reviews. Below are Global Food IQ’s four observations from the meeting.
- American diets continue to be suboptimal. 2020 Healthy Eating Index scores range from 49-65, out of 100, across life stages and sociodemographic groups. Trends are consistent with previous Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), suggesting guidance and interventions to-date have had limited impact. With few exceptions, most Americans are underconsuming vegetables, fruits, seafood, dairy and fortified soy alternatives, beans, peas, and lentils, and whole grains. More variation is seen with meat, poultry, eggs, nuts and seeds, and refined grains, where intakes fall below, at, and/or above recommendations depending on the age group in question. These findings suggest 2025-2030 DGA recommendations for healthy dietary patterns largely will echo prior editions.
- While overall guidance may look similar, more nuanced changes to dietary patterns are possible. Through Food Pattern Modeling, the DGAC is exploring ways to modify and/or add flexibility to existing dietary patterns to address more diverse population norms and needs. Shifts that appear to be supported by evidence include:
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- Increasing the proportion of Beans, Peas, and Lentils and Dark Green Vegetables within the Total Vegetables group
- Reducing Total Grains by 1-ounce equivalent (half refined, half whole), and substituting Beans, Peas, and Lentils or Starchy Vegetables for Total Grains
- Reducing Total Protein Foods and substituting Beans, Peas, and Lentils for Meats, Poultry, and Eggs
- Adding seafood to the Healthy Vegetarian Dietary Pattern
- Reducing Dairy and Fortified Soy Alternatives and substituting other fortified plant-based milk alternatives for Dairy and Fortified Soy Alternatives
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At the next and final 2025 DGAC meeting, Committee members will share additional results for patterns that remove carbohydrate containing foods and animal-based foods. Results from this work could lead to more dietary patterns than previous DGA have included, and/or a broader array of foods and food groups eligible to meet dietary pattern recommendations.
Recommended Read: Quick Takes from Meeting #2 of the 2025 DGAC
- Despite evidence gaps, the DGAC concluded that diets with higher amounts of ultra-processed foods (UPF) are associated with greater adiposity and risk of overweight and obesity. The evidence was considered “limited” for individuals 2 years and older, meaning that newer evidence might warrant a modification to the conclusion. Like other authorities and decision-making bodies, the Committee defaulted to using NOVA as the definition for UPF because it is most widely used in research. Common sources and types of UPF in the literature include sugar-sweetened beverages, processed meats and meat products, and refined grain products.
- The 2025 DGAC will likely issue strong and directive future research recommendations in their scientific report. Several Committee members expressed surprised at the lack of methodologically rigorous nutrition science available to answer the DGAC scientific questions. Most nutrition research is observational, while DGAC scientific protocols require stronger designs for inclusion in the evidence review process. The Committee discussed the need to publish a strong call to action for nutrition researchers and research funders, to ensure future DGA can address more topics of interest to Americans (e.g., snacking, meal frequency, outcomes for pregnant and postpartum women and the birth-to-24-months population). Stakeholders hoping to include certain studies in future DGA should review 2025 DGAC recommendations closely and design research accordingly.
The sixth and final DGAC meeting is scheduled for September 25-26, 2024. After that, the DGAC plans to publish its scientific report for federal agency review and public comment by the end of October.
Whether you are new to the DGA or already engaged in the process, Global Food IQ can help your teams develop a position and strategy, attend DGAC meetings and review reports, submit comments, and plan ahead for the 2030-2035 edition. Reach out to schedule a conversation.
