Performance Task: Evaluating the Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Scenario: You will act in a consultancy role for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), undertaking an evaluation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Click each of the items below to reveal the assessment requirements.

Part 1 – Reviewing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Your first task in the evaluation is to review the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Select a specific key recommendation within the guidelines, and identify scientific evidence used to inform the chosen guideline/key recommendation. At this stage, you are not looking for new scientific evidence, rather you are reviewing the existing research used to support and inform a specific key recommendation within the current guidelines.

Complete Part 1 of the template provided, ensuring you:

• Select and describe a key recommendation within the current guidelines and the reason for your choice.
• Identify three (3) resources cited in the current guidelines that include supporting scientific evidence used to inform the selected guideline/key recommendation.
  • Resources should be of varied research type from peer-reviewed journals (e.g., observational research, epidemiological research, randomized controlled trial).
  • Provide references using full APA formatting.
• In your own words, explain how each resource informed the selected guideline/key recommendation.

Part 2 – Recommendations for an Updated Guideline

It is important that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans undergo evaluation to include the most up-to-date information. Your next task is to make recommendations for an updated edition of the guideline/key recommendation by finding up-to-date, supporting, and/or contrasting scientific evidence. Through your research, you may find scientific evidence to strengthen or weaken the current guideline/key recommendation. To prepare for reporting back to the USDA Dietary Guidelines Committee, you will critically analyze the resources you find to inform your recommendations.

Complete Part 2 of the template provided, ensuring you:

• Identify three (3) resources (dated within the past 5 years of the publication date of the current guidelines) that provide more recent scientific evidence to inform the guideline/key recommendation.
  • Resources should be of varied research type from peer-reviewed journals (e.g., observational research, epidemiological research, randomized controlled trial).
  • Provide references using full APA formatting.
• In your own words, explain how each resource either strengthens or weakens the current guideline/key recommendation.
• Consider:
  • Common themes and/or differences found within the recent scientific evidence
  • If the wording or intent of the selected guideline/key recommendation should be changed

Part 3 – Application of the Guideline

Your final task is to consider how you may apply your findings to a specific setting, such as home, school, workplace, community, or retail operation. Following your learning from Part 1 and Part 2, you will determine how the guideline/key recommendation might be applied in a setting familiar to you and the ways in which you might influence policy to help others meet this in practice.

Complete Part 3 of the template provided, ensuring you:

• Select a specific setting to focus on. Describe your chosen setting and the reason for your choice.
  • In the home
  • In schools
  • In the workplace
  • In the community
  • In retail operations
• Recommend three (3) ways to influence policy in your selected setting to help people meet the guideline/key recommendation.
• Propose educational opportunities that could help people in your selected setting understand the guideline/key recommendation.