#switch4good

Switch4Good! Athletes Ditch Dairy and Perform Better!

Today on #LunchBreakLIVE, Lisa Karlan is featuring Switch4Good, a national campaign with Olympic and National Championship Athletes, whose athletic abilities were enhanced when they eliminated dairy products from their diets. Now these athletic leaders are standing up to the dairy industry and letting the public know via this national campaign. Lisa recently attended the Switch 4 Good Dairy-Free…

Help us remove dairy!

Make your voice heard by telling the DGA Advisory Committee that dairy does not deserve to be its own food category.

What are the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA)?

The DGA are released every 5 years by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). They provide advice on what to eat and drink to meet nutrient needs, promote health, and prevent disease.

Why you should care

The DGA affects the lives of everyday Americans, especially those who need diet assistance the most!

It especially impacts ethnic minorities, low income communities, and people who don’t eat like what is depicted on MyPlate. All public funded nutrition programs and many private-run nutrition programs use the DGA as their guide to provide food or plan their meals. This includes WIC, SNAP, and the NSLP, to name a few. Therefore, changing the DGA is the most upstream intervention.

What are we asking for in 2025?

Remove dairy as its own category and instead integrate it into the protein category.

We need to make incremental changes in the right direction and celebrate the small wins along the way. We know the committee will not remove dairy entirely at this time, given the government ties to the dairy industry. Instead, we are drawing attention to the fact that the current recommendations (emphasizing a glass of milk with meals) do not reflect most Americans’ dietary patterns. Many cultures traditionally consume minimal or no dairy products because their bodies cannot properly digest lactose, including 68% of the global population. This leaves people confused about their diet if they don’t consume dairy, regardless of their motivation.

The DGA stresses the cultural differences among Americans, yet a glass of milk with a meal is not seen in most cultures. No diet recommendation will be helpful if people cannot relate to it. We think removing the category and instead combining it with protein is a just compromise.

How you can help

Fill out our comment form! Our comment form is pre-populated to make it easy for you, but feel free to add your own voice. Every single comment counts. Last time, our supporters made up nearly 25% of all comments submitted by the public. We’ve grown since then, so we are looking forward to our comments making an even bigger impact. Please share this form to help amplify our voice.

Switch4Good’s Prior DGA Wins

In 2020, we asked for soy milk to be included in the DGA, and WE WON! Soy milk is now recognized as nutritionally equivalent to cow’s milk.