At this week s annual American Dietetic Association conference in San Diego, ACSH advisor Dr. Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington in Seattle, presented his latest research on the government s misguided dietary guidelines.
After analyzing dietary intake data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Dr. Drewnowski and colleagues found that only nine out of 20,000 participants achieved the recommended potassium (4,700 mg/day) and sodium (<1,500 mg/day) targets. In order to meet these guidelines, however, participants adhered to diets that were lacking in other nutrients, which, as Dr. Drewnowski points out, is one of the problems of looking at nutrients in isolation.
ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava adds that, unless someone has a medical condition, such as heart failure or kidney disease, then it doesn t make sense to focus on just one nutrient at a time. People should look at food as a whole, instead of parsing out each individual vitamin or mineral.
And the message for policymakers? Dr. Kava agrees with Dr. Drewnowski that they should look at what people are actually eating so that they can give them messages about food and nutrition that can actually be followed.