The Obama administration’s campaign for healthy diets is heading for a conflict with a well-funded industry as a panel of scientists is poised to tell Americans to eat less sugar.

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee will suggest this month limiting sugars to no more than 10 percent of all calories, down from the average 13 percent now consumed by U.S. adults, as part of a once-every-five year overhaul of a consumer guide. It would be the panel’s first explicit target for sugar in the diet.

The administration already has landed in food fights over first lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” anti-obesity initiative, which encourages healthy eating. And Republicans have said Obama-backed nutrition rules rob school districts of flexibility.

Food industry groups are howling that the dietary panel’s scientists overreached and should be reined in.

“People who hate the Obamas will add this in,” said Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor at New York University and a dietary advisory committee member in 1994-95. “The industry will do what it’s always done: You attack the science, you attack the individuals who are making statements on it, and you go behind the scenes and lobby.”

Groceries, Lunches

Suggestions by the nonpartisan panel of academics and scientists can have far-reaching effects. The nutrition guidelines help shape school lunch menus and the $6 billion a year Women, Infants and Children program, which serves more than 8 million Americans who buy groceries from retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kroger Co. They also are the basis for the dinner-plate icon that replaced the food pyramid widely used in public-education campaigns about a healthy diet.

The panel hasn’t published its recommendations, and members declined to comment in advance of an announcement. Documents and public testimony, however, reveal the outlines of its findings.

Committee members also are suggesting adding detailed sugar information on Food and Drug Administration nutrition labels, limiting the use of food stamps to healthy choices and endorsing sustainable agricultural practices. They are also encouraging the government to take steps to discourage consumption of sodium and red meat, as well as issuing its first recommendations to boost sustainable agriculture.

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