“The Sugar Association has presented a new argument in the ongoing public debate over how much sugar Americans should be told to consume in their daily diet… Specifically, the group, which represents US sugar beet and sugar cane farmers, processors, and refiners, argues that while dietary recommendations for nutrients like sugar should be based on current Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI), most DRIs in the US are woefully outdated and DRIs have never been established for total sugars and added sugars.
“Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) are essential to sound, evidence-based nutrition policy, including serving as the foundation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” said Courtney Gaine, the Sugar Association’s president/CEO in comments submitted on the 2025-2030 DGAs on November 17. “Yet the DRIs for nearly all macro- and most micro-nutrients are 20 years old,” she said. “Further, a DRI has never been established for added sugars or total sugars.” Concerns about basing dietary recommendations on outdated DRIs are hardly new, Gaine said. Even the experts who sat on the last DGAC called attention to the problem stating in their 2020 scientific report to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and USDA that “for the next cycle of the Dietary Guidelines process, the DRIs for macronutrients … need to be updated so that they provide current knowledge on nutrient recommendations.”
Gaine also raised concern that in the absence of a current DRI for added sugar, the DGAC is being left, again, to base its dietary recommendation for sugar on food pattern modeling, which “lacks the necessary scientific underpinning to determine intake recommendations.””
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March 22, 2026
"The Feeding the Economy report affirms the vital role food and agriculture play in our nation’s economic resilience and food security. Commercial bakers have long been proud partners to American agriculture, sourcing 85 percent of their core ingredients from domestic farmers....Sponsoring organizations from the food and agriculture industries, who helped make the 2026 study possible, provided commentary on this year’s findings. The full list of sponsoring organizations includes: ...The Sugar Association"
March 10, 2026
"Courtney Gaine, president and CEO of the Sugar Association, a scientific body that supports the U.S. sugar industry, told the USDA Outlook Forum that the school meal standards taking effect next year might prohibit added sugars in kindergarten meals and could significantly restrict them in other grades. That change alone would cut sugar demand by over 130,000 short tons. The industry faces additional pressure from rising GLP-1 weight-loss drug usage, which jumped from 12% in May 2024 to 18% in November 2025, though Gaine cautioned it remains "premature to assess the impact."
March 3, 2026
"Gaine added, "There is no data to support all this." She said the focus on added sugar is often politically motivated, but food groups have not pushed back on the MAHA pressure. There is a lot of fear of retaliation, and for good reason they have not wanted to push back publicly," Gaine said. "I think it’s going to demand a coordinated, really coordinated, pushing back. Any effort up (until) now has been to go along to get along, and I don’t know if that’s going to work."
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