Comments from BPC's Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative on 2015 Dietary Guidelines

The co-chairs of the Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative of the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) appreciate the opportunity to provide input to the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee as you develop this important tool to guide healthy eating for Americans. BPC supports the joint USDA and HHS Dietary Guidelines process and urges the continued adherence to the best available evidence to ensure the guidelines most effectively help combat our nation’s obesity crisis. In addition to the process of developing the guidelines, it is also critically important that they are disseminated widely, consistently, and in a way that is targeted to a full range of audiences so that all Americans can make informed choices about what food they buy for themselves and their families.

The Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative that we co-chair was launched with the goals of reducing obesity and chronic disease and their associated health care costs. The impact of our nation’s obesity crisis reaches far and wide, affecting not only the health of individuals and health care spending, but also our economic and national security. In June 2012, we released a series of policy recommendations in our report, Lots to Lose: How America’s Health and Obesity Crisis Affects our Economic Future. Consistent with those recommendations, we offer the following input to the Committee.