Evidence Review For Dietary Guidance

The evidence review for dietary guidance is the first step in establishing the Myanmar food based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) for pregnant and lactating women and children under 5 years old. The review process followed a systematic approach to gather, assess and analyse data and information related to food, diet and nutrient intakes of the Myanmar people, agricultural production and food supply, food sustainability, cultural food preference and behaviour, prevalence of malnutrition and diet-related diseases. The evidence review provides justifications for making FBDG recommendations based on up-to-date and country-specific information, as well as the global evidence base. The evidence review increases the transparency of the evidence-based process in establishing the Myanmar FBDGs. Moreover, The evidence review for dietary guidance is the first structured evidence review to guide FBDGs development in Myanmar.

This report presents the outcomes of a scoping review conducted to identify and map existing evidence on the effects of school food and nutrition policies on health-related outcomes in children of school age as part of the initial preparation for undertaking the guideline development process by the WHO Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group (NUGAG) Subgroup on Policy Actions. In order to align with WHO’s Nutrition-friendly Schools Initiative (NFSI) framework, school-based food and nutrition interventions were assessed in terms of the impacts in four key policy areas, namely – the school community, the school curriculum, the school food and nutrition environment, and school nutrition and health services.

What foods should Americans eat to promote their health, and in what amounts? What is the scientific evidence that supports specific recommendations for dietary intake to reduce the risk of multifactorial chronic disease? These questions are critically important because dietary intake has been recognized to have a role as a key determinant of health. As the primary federal source of consistent, evidence-based information on dietary practices for optimal nutrition, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) have the promise to empower Americans to make informed decisions about what and how much they eat to improve health and reduce the risk of chronic disease. The adoption and widespread translation of the DGA requires that they be universally viewed as valid, evidence-based, and free of bias and conflicts of interest to the extent possible. However, this has not routinely been the case. A first short report meant to inform the 2020 review cycle explored how the advisory committee selection process can be improved to provide more transparency, eliminate bias, and include committee members with a range of viewpoints. This second and final report recommends changes to the DGA process to reduce and manage sources of bias and conflicts of interest, improve timely opportunities for engagement by all interested parties, enhance transparency, and strengthen the science base of the process.

This book offers a broad introduction to food policies in the United States. Real-world controversies and debates motivate the book’s attention to economic principles, policy analysis, nutrition science and contemporary data sources. It assumes that the reader's concern is not just the economic interests of farmers, but also includes nutrition, sustainable agriculture, the environment and food security. The book’s goal is to make US food policy more comprehensible to those inside and outside the agri-food sector whose interests and aspirations have been ignored. The chapters cover US agriculture, food production and the environment, international agricultural trade, food and beverage manufacturing, food retail and restaurants, food safety, dietary guidance, food labeling, advertising and federal food assistance programs for the poor. The author is an agricultural economist with many years of experience in the non-profit advocacy sector, the US Department of Agriculture and as a professor at Tufts University. The author's well-known blog on US food policy provides a forum for discussion and debate of the issues set out in the book.

Dietary Risk Assessment in the WIC Program reviews methods used to determine dietary risk based on failure to meet Dietary Guidelines for applicants to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Applicants to the WIC program must be at nutritional risk to be eligible for program benefits. Although "dietary risk" is only one of five nutrition risk categories, it is the category most commonly reported among WIC applicants. This book documents that nearly all low-income women in the childbearing years and children 2 years and over are at risk because their diets fail to meet the recommended numbers of servings of the food guide pyramid. The committee recommends that all women and children (ages 2-4 years) who meet the eligibility requirements based on income, categorical and residency status also be presumed to meet the requirement of nutrition risk. By presuming that all who meet the categorical and income eligibility requirements are at dietary risk, WIC retains its potential for preventing and correcting nutrition-related problems while avoiding serious misclassification errors that could lead to denial of services for eligible individuals.

Since 1938 and 1941, nutrient intake recommendations have been issued to the public in Canada and the United States, respectively. Currently defined as the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), these values are a set of standards established by consensus committees under the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and used for planning and assessing diets of apparently healthy individuals and groups. In 2015, a multidisciplinary working group sponsored by the Canadian and U.S. government DRI steering committees convened to identify key scientific challenges encountered in the use of chronic disease endpoints to establish DRI values. Their report, Options for Basing Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) on Chronic Disease: Report from a Joint US-/Canadian-Sponsored Working Group, outlined and proposed ways to address conceptual and methodological challenges related to the work of future DRI Committees. This report assesses the options presented in the previous report and determines guiding principles for including chronic disease endpoints for food substances that will be used by future National Academies committees in establishing DRIs.

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride set up The Cambridge Nutrition Clinic in 1998. As a parent of a child diagnosed with learning disabilities, she is acutely aware of the difficulties facing other parents like her, and she has devoted much of her time to helping these families. She realized that nutrition played a critical role in helping children and adults to overcome their disabilities, and has pioneered the use of probiotics in this field. Her willingness to share her knowledge has resulted in her contributing to many publications, as well as presenting at numerous seminars and conferences on the subjects of learning disabilities and digestive disorders. Her book Gut and Psychology Syndrome captures her experience and knowledge, incorporating her most recent work. She believes that the link between learning disabilities, the food and drink that we take, and the condition of our digestive system is absolute, and the results of her work have supported her position on this subject. In her clinic, parents discuss all aspects of their child's condition, confident in the knowledge that they are not only talking to a professional but to a parent who has lived their experience. Her deep understanding of the challenges they face puts her advice in a class of its own.