January 31,2010 - US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced the release of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the federal government's evidence-based nutritional guidance to promote health, reduce the risk of chronic diseases, and reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity through improved nutrition and physical activity. Read the Guidlines on the USDA website.
SIO Members Comment:
Debu Tripathy, MD, Professor of Medicine, USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California: “Rather than endorse the whole document word for word, I think that we should commend the government for taking a strong stance on the obesity epidemic and encouraging healthy habits for life. However, the SIO should add that the medical and care provider community needs to take action to build this in to their treatment plans and discussions with patients. The document alone will not have an impact if there are not parallel efforts for education, outreach, implementation, monitoring and amending the document. This includes reaching out to special populations – those that need it the most – with less education, less financial means, medical problems, etc. Most importantly, children, through parents and school need special attention – and parents and schools in under-resourced environments need the resources to do this properly and to sustain it. In a sense, this requires a real cultural shift. SIO, in advocating for holistic and integrative care in cancer patients, should emphasize that nutrition is a prime building block in both cancer prevention and cancer treatment given the known impact of nutrition in both these settings…”
Barrie R. Cassileth, PhD, Chief, Integrative Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: “As many of you know, Fitness (nutrition and physical activity) has been one of our major programmatic areas since the MSKCC Integrative Medicine department was established 10 years ago. In some respects, it is the most important of our programmatic areas as it is the only one associated with actual survival benefits. It should be a programmatic focus of all Integrative Oncology programs; good nutrition and physical activity should be prescribed to every cancer patient”.
Lorenzo Cohen, PhD, Professor, Department of Behavioral Science, Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX: “…the food industry needs to now take note of these strong guidelines and take responsibility to help the nation become healthy. If done properly, they can use the new guidelines to increase business and not simply look at it as a business loss "if people eat less food we will make less money".”
Stephen Mark Sagar, MBBS, Professor, McMaster University Department of Oncology - Division of Radiation Oncology: “Excellent points...apply internationally… Like smoking restriction, that will require heavy government regulation. As technology driven industrial-farming and genetic engineering make huge profits for certain corporations, those same corporations will jointly own the pharmaceutical industries that will make profits from treating those illnesses... The rub is that they actually falsely advertise information, such as a product is healthy “because it is low in saturated fat”, but don’t push your attention to the high sodium and high sugar content! In Europe (EEC), food is more regulated and the quality higher; genetic engineering of poor quality stock is often banned. Insecticide levels are generally lower”.
David Rosenthal, MD, Professor, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School(Drawing attention to comments from Marji McCullough, ScD, RD, American Cancer Society national strategic director of nutritional epidemiology.): "The updated USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 include recommendations for a healthy diet and physical activity, both important behaviors in reducing cancer risk. According to the American Cancer Society, about a third of cancer deaths can be attributed to poor diet and physical inactivity. Research has demonstrated that maintaining a healthy weight, staying physically active throughout life, and consuming a healthy diet can substantially reduce a person's lifetime risk of developing cancer… We are pleased to see that the guidelines give much needed attention to community action and system-level approaches to create social and physical environments that encourage the adoption and maintenance of healthful nutrition and physical activity behaviors for all segments of the population. Using evidence-based approaches in schools, worksites, and communities is needed to address current obesity trends”.
