--- title: Congress Questions Diet Guidelines description: They were never meant to be the last word on nutrition, health and agriculture officials said canonical: https://time.com/4065503/congress-federal-diet-guidelines/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-07T22:12:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:36:32.185Z article:section: Health og:title: Congress Questions Federal Dietary Guidelines og:description: They were never meant to be the last word on nutrition, health officials said og:url: https://time.com/4065503/congress-federal-diet-guidelines/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Congress Questions Federal Dietary Guidelines twitter:description: They were never meant to be the last word on nutrition, health officials said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Congress Questions Federal Dietary Guidelines by [Maggie Fox / NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Maggie Fox / NBC News Oct 7, 2015 10:12 PM UTC by [Maggie Fox / NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Maggie Fox / NBC News Oct 7, 2015 10:12 PM UTC The top federal health and agriculture officials defended the government’s dietary guidelines against an assault by a powerful Congressional committee Wednesday, saying they are based on the most solid science but were never meant to be the last word on nutrition. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Health and Human Services Department are due to release the [2015 guidelines](http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/new-diet-proposals-eat-your-veggies-have-some-coffee-n309026) by the end of the year. The aim is to help Americans eat the healthiest foods. The need becomes more dire with every year — two-thirds of Americans are now overweight or obese, they eat [far too few of the](http://www.nbcnews.com/health/diet-fitness/youre-still-not-eating-enough-vegetables-n389466)… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/can-we-eat-butter-salt-house-members-question-diet-guidelines-n440286?cid=par-time%5F20151007) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4065503/congress-federal-diet-guidelines/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4065503/congress-federal-diet-guidelines/"},"headline":"Congress Questions Federal Dietary Guidelines","datePublished":"2015-10-07T22:12:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:36:32.185Z","description":"They were never meant to be the last word on nutrition, health and agriculture officials said","url":"https://time.com/4065503/congress-federal-diet-guidelines/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maggie Fox / NBC News"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4065503/congress-federal-diet-guidelines/","name":"Congress Questions Federal Dietary Guidelines"}}]}] ```