How useful are dietary guidelines in enabling people to eat better

How useful are dietary guidelines in enabling people to eat better? Illustrate your answer with reference to a specific usage.

Back in the days, the standard of ‘beauty and wealth’ was person who was over-weighted, since people generally thought wealthy and high class people lavishly ate well. Nevertheless, people saw in a new light as time goes by; the symbol and the standard of ‘beauty and wealth’ was no longer over-weighted person. Instead it was person who is well balanced and even more, who has slim figures since the haves can control and maintain one’s health based on what they eat or exercise than those have-nots. Then what, how, why and who set such changes and standards throughout the time?

In order to find out the establishment of such standards, this essay is going to firstly discover definition and the outcome of Dietary Guideline. Then it will critically assess the usefulness of dietary guideline based on its purposes.

Health is an enduring focus of human concern. Modern societies have witnessed a fundamental and far-reaching transformation in the ways in this these concerns are conceptualized. One of the major influences on health issues can be the use of dietary guidelines. Generally speaking Dietary Guideline is an ‘authoritative advice for people on how good dietary habits can promote health and reduce risk for major chronic diseases. They also serve as the basis for food and nutrition programmes’ (Dowler: 2008, Lecture note). Such rationalization and medicalization of diet and health issues from dietary guidelines has brought about a significant change. There can be no doubt, in a technical sense, modern scientific formulations of the physiological mechanisms which articulate the links between diet and health, offer great explanatory power and theoretical sophistication. Moreover, the rationalization of diet has seen professional groups, and the state itself, progressively claim ever more authority over nutritional knowledge and over dietary choices. Food guidelines have provided individuals with a sense that they can influence their own health for the better by means of choices and practices which they feel they personally can control and comprehend. Likewise, the Dietary Guidelines are based on the best available scientific evidence and provide information for health professionals and the general population about healthy food choices. However, before observing the usefulness of dietary guidelines, one should understand the process and the outcome of dietary guidelines.

Back in the 1970s, the UK government released two important reports, “Prevention and Health: Everybody’s Business” (1976) and “Prevention and Health: Eating for Health” (1978) to change the lifestyles of food and nutrition in UK. Based on such “health promotion” events, the National Advisory Committee on Nutrition Education (NACNE) report on diet and health recommendation in 1983, and a second COMA report about diet and cardiovascular disease in 1984.

This is a preview of the whole essay

The NACNE was established in 1979 by the Health Education Council and the British Nutrition Foundation, which is a food industry-funded body. The NACNE report has made extensive recommendations for dietary changes. For example, ‘recommending that individuals reduce their average total fat intake by 10% their average saturated fatty acid intake by 15% and their intake of sugar, alcohol, and salt’ (Bufton, 2000:475). Even though the Department of Health and Social Security allowed the report, yet it was agreed with hostility. Besides the NACNE report, the Department of Health and Social Security commissioned a COMA report entitled Diet and Cardiovascular Disease. According to Philip James, Director of the Rowett Research Institute at Aberdeen University, and vice-chairman of the Committee, claimed that the COMA Panel felt under pressure to produce a report acceptable to the government.

Despite the fact of lacking consensus over the report in 1974, the report was being used as a basis for dietary recommendations. Thereafter, in the wake of the Report, there appeared significant government-funded programs broadly based on it. There was “Look after you heart campaign,” launched jointly by the Health Education Authority and the Department of Health and Social Security in April, which was a long-term project to reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease in England (McKenzie, 1987:136). Also many other projects for dietary guidelines like, ‘eat-well plate’ and ‘Five-a-Day’ by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for instance, was deliberated to increase the awareness of heart disease and to promote lifestyle changes in individuals, particularly, those from the lower social economic groups who were seen as being most at risk from coronary heart disease.

Although, the aim of the dietary guidelines is to provide relevant, practical and scientifically valid information and as a governments/international agencies policies about how to promote and maintain health and wellbeing through healthy, enjoyable eating, it is disputable whether dietary guidelines are actually useful for people to eat better.

Generally speaking, the recommendations and dietary guidelines derive from a positivist model of science by the panels of the experts. The scientific ‘facts’ can guide knowledge and drive policy, and the role of scientists is simply to sift, evaluate and summarize key, reliable information and facts. However, there are several discordances to dietary guidelines that are presented. For example, “physiologist Reginald Passmore of Edinburgh University and co-author of the standard nutrition textbook in Britain, were also skeptical about the claims of NACNE and COMA. Passmore referred many of those involved as the “New Puritans” and stated that they would need much more “hard scientific evidence” before their claims should be heard (Bufton, 2000:475). These are majorly due the lacking number of panels to get guidelines in the food and nutrition studies fields. Nowadays, a lot of people are interested and concerned about their nutrition knowledge. Yet decades ago, there were not enough of food scientists. Thus it was difficult to obtain general dietary guidelines.

Alongside with the lacking number of panels, research funding and guideline selection is not objective. The ‘facts’ given as dietary guidelines by the experts solely depend on peer-reviewed evidences by the scientist, whose research is funded, published, cited (Dowler, 2008: Lecture Note). Yet, the dietary guidelines are not purely objective and trustworthy as it can be seen from the following cases; In the United States, despite the warning of dental and healthcare professionals, the average American consumes massive amount of sugar, which is 150 pounds of sugar per year. This is mainly due to the influence of the sugar industry, in other words, "Big Sugar," has in nutrition guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. In general, sugar companies' stronghold on U.S. import taxes, which puts more than $1 billion profits into the pockets of American barons. Therefore, the two industries employ similar political and research tactics to keep the dangers of their products out of the minds of the public. “Big Sugar, not only hides the amount of sugars in foods, but they also use their influence to mask the health dangers of sugar in . Marion Nestle in Food Politics describes how vulnerable dietary guidelines are to the sugar industry's political maneuverings. The U.S. Department of Agriculture () 2005 Guidelines were recently rephrased from "limit your intake of added sugars" -- a guideline that has been in place for the past five years - to "moderate your intake of sugars." While this change appears harmless at first, a closer look at the definitions of the words "limit" and "moderate" explains why invested so much money into amendment” (Veracity, 2005). Therefore it can be argued that dietary guidelines are not always useful since it is sometimes used as a tool for food industries benefits.

On the other hand, it can be discussed that the dietary guidelines are useful as it guides nutrition information and advice. For instance, nutrient labeling on food products and gives a broader knowledge of food in wide-ranges. People can have better knowledge about not only basic nutrients, but also other dietary supplements such as micro-nutrients like Vitamin A, B and Cs and how those elements have effects to our health. Moreover, very importantly, the dietary guidelines are a tool intended to help people eat well. For instance, “The USDA, Agriculture Departments’ proposal, is the first phase of the government's effort to make a new graphic or update the food pyramid, along with nutritional brochures and other educational materials…Therefore; the schools rely on it, along with the federal dietary guidelines, for planning lunches” (AP, 2003).

Besides, dietary guidelines are useful in order to make rational decisions for individuals depending on its own health conditions. In other words, dietary guidelines are effective since it can help and give and advice to avoid or prevent from diseases. For example, people now by and large have basic common sense that a person who has high cholesterol rate has to avoid eating shrimps, bacons or sausages, while it is at least allowable to eat chicken and fish amongst the meat. Moreover, dietary guidelines are useful for pregnancy as it helps to maintain a successful pregnancy maternal health. Nutrient needs are increased in pregnancy. For the mother to be solely dependent upon her dietary intake to meet these demands, would represent a very high risk strategy. Hence adequate balanced diet knowledge through dietary guidelines is important for a successful outcome. Likewise, the use of the guidelines encourages healthy lifestyles that will minimize the risk of the development of diet-related diseases.

To conclude, although it is difficult to define whether dietary guidelines are useful since it is not easy to determine the status of being healthy. Also, the several flaws of dietary guidelines and continuously changing policies based on the development of scientific researches and changes in generations, the Dietary Guidelines are designed to help people to feel confident and comfortable with implementing the guidelines in their daily lives. Even with the most recent shift in nutrition policy, balance, moderation, and flexibility carry the day when it comes to a healthy perspective on food and eating. Thus, it can be argued that keeping and following the tips of dietary guidelines are useful for people to eat better in daily lives.

Bibliography

AP Washington, (2003) Rebuiliding The Food Pyramid USDA Seeks to Help People Tailor Individual Dietary Needs, (CBS NEWS) obtainable from

Bufton, M. W., (2000) Yesterday’s Science and Policy: Diet and Disease Revisited, Epidemiology, Vol.11, No.4, pp.474-476

Dowler, E., (2008) Lecture Notes

McKenzie, J., (1987) Measuring Hear Campaign’s Impact, Health Education Journals, Vol.46, No.3, pp. 136-137

Veracity, D., (2005) The Politics of sugar: why your government lies to you about this disease-promoting ingredient, (NaturalNews.com) obtainable from

Beardsworth, A. and Keil, T., (1997) Sociology on the Menu: an invitation to the study of food and society, London: Routledge. Ch 6 ‘Changing conceptions of diet and health’.

Food Ethics Council (2005) Getting Personal: Shifting responsibilities for dietary health, Brighton: Food Ethics Council, obtainable from

Bowland, B. and Kinsey, J., (1999) How can the US food system deliver food products consistent with the dietary guidelines? Food marketing and retailing: an economist’s view, Food Policy, Vol.24, No.2-3, pp. 237-253

Jackson, A. and Robinson S., (2001) Dietary guidelines for pregnancy: a review of current evidence, , , , pp. 625-630