The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans for 2020-2025 were released by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services on January 4, 2021. The ninth edition of these guidelines puts a focus on the idea that every bite counts, from infancy all the way through end-of-life care, and offers dietary guidelines for every stage of life.
The Goal of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Make every bite count! The goal of the Dietary Guidelines is and always has been to promote health and wellness and help prevent disease. But it’s important to note that these guidelines are evolving as the state of our country’s health changes. Many of the updates that were made are focused on the prevalence of diet-related chronic diseases posing a major public health threat. Other focuses include dietary patterns and taking a lifespan approach to a healthy diet.
The executive summary of the new dietary guidelines from the USDA and HHS reads, “The 2020-2025 edition of the Dietary Guidelines builds from the 2015 edition, with revisions grounded in the Scientific Report of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and consideration of Federal agency and public comments. The Dietary Guidelines is designed for policymakers and nutrition and health professionals to help all individuals and their families consume a healthy, nutritionally adequate diet.”
The new guidelines are available for download in PDF form.
2021 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes
The 2021 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes have also been released. Annual updates since 1989 have been made to these standards to ensure that new research, technology and treatment methods are considered and represented.
Among the revisions released, here are some of the most notable:
- The concept of “cost-related medication nonadherence” has been added.
- A new subsection, “Delivery and Dissemination of Lifestyle Behavior Change for Diabetes Prevention,” was created.
- The concept of patient-centered communication that uses nonjudgmental language has been added.
You can access the full summary of revisions from the American Diabetes Association.
Introduction: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes—2021
American Diabetes Association
The ADA has recently released updated Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes for 2021. The Standards of Care are meant to include recommendations on “screening, diagnostic, and therapeutic actions that are known or believed to favorably affect health outcomes of patients with diabetes.”
