Group fights to keep cholesterol warnings in dietary guidelines

Doctors are pushing back against a recommendation to remove cholesterol warnings from the new 2015 Dietary Guidelines.

The Physicians Committee, a nonprofit group of doctors, put up six billboards near House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway’s (R-Texas) home office this week in response to a committee hearing he called earlier in the month to questioned how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are drafting the guidelines.

{mosads}The billboards feature the image of a cracked egg next to the words #CholesterolKills and directs viewers to thetruthabouteggs.org.

In a letter to Conaway on Thursday, the group said the guidelines should not be swayed by special interests seeking to remove disease-fighting cholesterol warnings

“This week, billboards near your Texas offices will alert you to the dangers Americans face if cholesterol warnings are removed,” they wrote.

In February, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations that help USDA and HHS draft the guidelines, said in its report that cholesterol is “no longer a nutrient of concern for over consumption.”

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are updated every five years, has previously recommended cholesterol intake be limited to no more than 300 mg a day.

The Physicians Committee, however, said a report in the autumn 2015 issue of Good Medicine magazine found that recommendation might have been influenced by egg-industry-funded cholesterol research.

“America’s heart disease and diabetes epidemics will continue unabated if the egg industry succeeds in its efforts to get cholesterol warnings out of the guidelines,” the group said in its letter to Conaway. “Cholesterol is as big a health threat as ever. A recent study in the journal Atherosclerosis found that eggs can increase diabetes risk by 68 percent and heart disease risk by 19 percent.”

Conaway was urged to continue his efforts to ensure the guidelines, due to be completed in December, present the best and most reliable information to help Americans make healthy food and beverage choices.