Finally, There Is a Consensus (Kind Of) About What We Should Eat
We noted earlier that there are only three things that everyone agrees on when it comes to nutrition . Thanks to the meeting of nutritional researchers, we can add a few more things to this list.
The first paragraph in the consensus statement, which was adopted at the meeting in November, reads simply: More plants, nuts, legumes, seafood . Researchers endorsed the findings of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee , which recommended these foods while advising people to avoid sugar-sweetened foods and beverages as well as refined grains.
Unfortunately, there was no more consensus. STAT reports that researchers tried to label certain foods or diets as acceptable, but were unable to agree on:
“90 minutes into the meeting, we were still trying to agree on what the hell this vegetable was,” said Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center. “It was a dark moment.”
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“We disagree on the details, but we affirm that experts from very different points of view do have common ground,” said Katz, who was co-chair of the Oldways Finding Common Ground conference.
The researchers also agreed that many different diets can be beneficial to health; For example, there is no need to restrict carbohydrates , although this can be one of many different pathways to health.
They also expressed concern that there is too much confusion in nutritional science and that new discoveries are making headlines in the news, even if the underlying science hasn’t changed. They point out that people need strong evidence, practical tools, and a sense of “food literacy” to understand nutrition and its relationship to sustainability. Read more at the link below and check out the STAT article to learn more about how you arrived at the consensus.
Oldways consensus by consensus | via STAT
Photo by Zelda Richardson .
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