Purdue nutrition expert lends voice to update dietary guidelines
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The new national dietary guidelines released Wednesday (Jan. 12) provide a good base for people to try to follow in their everyday lives, says a Purdue University expert who worked on the committee that made recommendations for the report.
Connie Weaver, distinguished professor and head of Purdue's Department of Foods and Nutrition, was part of the 13-member committee that met between September 2003 and September 2004 to compile science-based advice for the sixth edition of "Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans."
The nation's dietary guidelines are re-examined every five years to make sure they are up to date with the latest scientific and medical knowledge. Any government food program, such as school lunches, must comply with the guidelines.
"From the start, we knew it was critical to evaluate the science used to prepare previous reports and base our recommendations on solid data," Weaver said. "I was probably asked to participate on the committee based on my research expertise in bone nutrients."
Weaver was one of the authors of the Surgeon General's 2004 "Report on Bone Health and Osteoporosis." She was on the 1997 panel to help develop new calcium requirements for the National Academy of Science and provided her expertise at the seminar in Washington, D.C., that focused on the need to revise vitamin D dietary intakes.
Weaver is director of the National Institutes of Health Botanicals Research Center for Age Related Diseases. She is past president of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences.
CONTACT: Weaver, (765) 494-8237, weavercm@purdue.edu
Writer: Maggie Morris, (765) 494-2432, maggiemorris@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Related Web sites:
Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee report
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