All Videos for Dietary Guidelines

Preventing Strokes with Diet

Increasing the intake of potassium-rich foods is associated with a significantly lower stroke risk.



98% of American Diets Potassium-Deficient

Less than 2% of Americans achieve even the recommended minimum adequate intake of potassium, due primarily to inadequate plant food intake.



Changing Protein Recommendations?

A research group is suggesting that human protein requirements may have been underestimated.



Paleolithic Lessons

An evolutionary argument for a plant-based diet is presented, in contrast to “Paleo” fad diets.



How Much Soy Is Too Much?

To maintain the low IGF-1 levels associated with a plant-based diet, one should probably eat no more than 3-5 servings of soy foods a day.



Diet Versus Drugs for High Cholesterol

Though official recommendations are to first treat high cholesterol with dietary change, many physicians jump right to cholesterol-lowering medications, such as statins, that can have an array of adverse side effects.



Mineral of the Year—Magnesium

Despite promising autopsy and population data suggesting that inadequate magnesium intake is a risk factor for sudden cardiac death, it wasn’t until recently that this was demonstrated in prospective studies.



Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death

Death in America is largely a foodborne illness. Focusing on studies published just over the last year in peer-reviewed scientific medical journals, Dr. Greger offers practical advice on how best to feed ourselves and our families to prevent, treat, and even reverse many of the top 15 killers in the United States.



Garden Variety Anti-Inflammation

The variety of fruit and vegetable consumption may decrease disease risk, independent of quantity.



Breast Cancer Survival and Trans Fat

Breast cancer survivors may reduce their chances of survival if they eat too much trans fat, found primarily in the American diet in junk food and animal products.



Daily Source of Vitamin B12

Fortified foods, such as some breakfast cereals and types of nutritional yeast, can provide another cholesterol-free source of vitamin B12.



Cheapest Source of Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) supplementation can cost as little as $2 a year.



Safest Source of B12

Since foods are effectively a package deal, what’s the best way to get vitamin B12 (cobalamin)?



Vitamin B12 Recommendation Change

Based on two biomarkers of functional vitamin B12 (cobalamin) status, B12 recommendations formulated more than a half century ago may need to be updated.



Resolving the Vitamin D-Bate

Why the current vitamin D recommendations may be too low, other expert recommendations may be too high, and 2000 international units a day may be just right.



How the Institute of Medicine Arrived at their Vitamin D Recommendation

The latest revision of the official vitamin D recommendations was based on the body’s reaction to protect bone health—but what about the other three dozen affected organs?



The Difficulty of Arriving at a Vitamin D Recommendation

People respond differently to the same level of vitamin D supplementation, making it difficult to formulate one-size-fits-all guidelines.



Vitamin D Supplements May Be Necessary

To reach the circulating (25-hydroxy) vitamin D levels associated with the lowest overall mortality, one may need to take supplements, given data suggesting suboptimal production from sun—even under optimal circumstances.



Vitamin D and Mortality May Be a U-Shaped Curve

Vitamin D deficiency may shorten one’s lifespan, but getting too much vitamin D may also adversely affect longevity.



Is Vitamin D the New Vitamin E?

The Institute of Medicine’s conservative position on vitamin D is understandable, given the history of hyped vitamin supplements (vitamin A, beta carotene, folic acid, vitamin C, vitamin E) that turned out worthless—or worse.



Evolutionary Argument for Optimal Vitamin D Level

Should the vitamin D levels found in lifeguards be considered the norm for our species, given the fact that we evolved running around naked all day in equatorial Africa?



Vitamin D Recommendations Changed

The Institute of Medicine tripled their official vitamin D recommendation, based on target blood levels that indicate a large percentage of the U.S. population is deficient.



Dietary Guidelines: Pushback from the Sugar, Salt, & Meat Industries

The Sugar Association, Salt Institute, and American Meat Institute all railed against the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans.



Dietary Guidelines: Progressing from Pyramid to Plate

MyPlate represents a significant improvement over the USDA Food Guide Pyramid.



New Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Following the recommendations of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee to “shift food intake patterns to a more plant-based diet,” the latest USDA guidelines include a vegan adaptation.



Dietary Guidelines: Advisory Committee Conflicts of Interest

The USDA Dietary Guidelines Committee has been made of up individuals funded by McDonald’s, Coca Cola, the Sugar Association, the American Meat Institute, candy bar companies, and the egg and dairy boards.



Dietary Guidelines: Science vs. Corporate Interests

The USDA Dietary Guidelines Committee stands accused of ignoring the science to justify its recommendation to eat meat.



Plant Protein Preferable

Since foods are a package deal, Dr. Walter Willet, the Chair of Harvard’s nutrition department, recommends we emphasize plant sources of protein, rather than animal sources.



Dietary Guidelines: It’s All Greek to the USDA

Unlike the United States, where the agriculture department is the lead agency on formulating dietary recommendations, other countries such as Greece rely on their health department. What do their dietary guidelines look like?



Dietary Guidelines: From Dairies to Berries

The success story in Finland shows that science-based dietary guidelines can save millions of lives.



Dietary Guidelines: The First 25 Years

How have the Dietary Guidelines for Americans evolved over the years since they were first issued in 1980?



Dietary Guidelines: Just Say No

What happens when the twin mandates of the USDA—to both promote agribusiness, and protect our nation’s health—come into conflict?



Dietary Guidelines: USDA Conflicts of Interest

The mission of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is to promote agribusiness. At the same time, the USDA is the agency primarily tasked with developing the nutrition guidelines.



Dietary Guidelines: With a Grain of Big Salt

The National Dairy Council teams up with the Salt Institute to downplay the risk of sodium in the American diet.



Dietary Guidelines: Corporate Guidance

Nearly 2,000 comments were submitted to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Watch what the Sugar Association, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and the chewing gum company, Wrigley’s, had to say.



Nation’s Diet in Crisis

Survey reveals the vast majority of Americans are not eating healthy, even by U.S. Dietary Guideline standards.



The Tomato Effect

Why does the medical establishment sometimes ignore highly efficacious therapies, such as plant-based diets, for heart disease prevention and treatment?



Mothers Overestimate Dietary Quality

Mothers have been found to dramatically overestimate the quality of their preschoolers’ diets.



Mercury in Corn Syrup?

Fifty different brands of high-fructose corn syrup-containing foods were tested for mercury.