Michelle “Shelley” McGuire, director of the Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Idaho has been named to a committee dedicated to reviewing scientific literature to guide updates on the consumption of alcohol in the next edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
McGuire is one of nine experts chosen by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She was picked for her expertise in human milk. She will study the effects of alcohol consumption during lactation, including milk quality and composition, post-partum weight loss, and infant development.
The National Academy of Medicine invited McGuire into their ranks last fall. She became the first member to be inducted while working at an Idaho institution. NAM is one of three organizations making up NASEM.
McGuire’s duty as a member is to help inform national health policy and guide health research priorities. She is prioritized to serve on panels of experts tasked with writing reports on the day’s most important scientific issue.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are updated every five years. It currently states that children should be breastfed for two years. The guidelines surrounding breastfeeding and alcohol consumption are vague.
“At the most basic level, we’re going to determine if there’s even enough science out there to make recommendations and we will summarize the literature,” McGuire said.
The committee held its first meeting in January and will continue to review the literature. Afterward, if the information is insufficient to offer guidance, members may take on the challenge of providing research and additional science.
Willie Gibbs can be reached at [email protected]