You may have noticed that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans have been a hot topic in the news lately. That’s because the group of health and nutrition experts charged with updating them recently released their recommendations. Why is this important? Because the US Dietary Guidelines, based on the strongest science available, provide advice about making food choices which will promote good health, a healthy weight, and help prevent disease. The committee’s recommendations, if enacted, will change the way we are advised to eat.
The 2010 Dietary Guidelines addressed our ever-expanding waistlines and recommended matching calories eaten with calories expended to promote a healthy weight. They advised us to eat mostly nutrient-dense foods and beverages, which have more nutrients for a given number of calories. We were advised to pack our plates with a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low- or non-fat dairy, seafood, legumes, and nuts, and to have less alcohol, red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened foods and drinks, and refined grains.
The new report advocates much of the same advice but includes 3 important changes:
• Fats: Rather than recommending a limit on total fat and cholesterol, focus on limiting saturated fats to fewer than 10% of total calories.
• Sugar: Consume a maximum of 10 percent of total calories from added sugars per day. The 2010 Guidelines simply suggested eating less sugar.
• Sodium: Consume less than 2,300 mg dietary sodium per day. The previous guidelines recommended a further reduction to 1,500 mg daily for some. This recommendation has been removed.
Here’s why:
Fats
Not all fat is bad. In fact we need fat for fuel, to absorb certain vitamins, and to create new cells. Over the years, advice on fats has swung back and forth like a pendulum. Current research shows that a diet heavy in saturated fats, typically found in animal fats and tropical oils, is more likely to cause an increase in the risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and some cancers, while unsaturated fats found in olives, nuts, avocados and other vegetable oils may protect us from disease. These sources of fat should be included in the diet.
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The committee suggests a change to the decades-long advice to limit cholesterol intake because we now know that cholesterol in food has limited impact on levels of cholesterol in the body. But hold on. This doesn’t mean that we should eat animal foods with abandon. Most of the foods that are high in cholesterol, like steak, are also high in saturated fat and will still need to be limited, but foods like eggs and shellfish are no longer taboo on heart healthy diets.
Sugar
Sugar is added to many foods that factor heavily in American diets like soda and other sugar sweetened beverages, sweets and snacks, and cereals. The more processed foods we eat the more sugar we are likely to consume, paving the way to obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in susceptible people. We are still encouraged to eat fruit and low-fat dairy products despite their natural sugar content as they also supply us with many important nutrients. Sugar is the major fuel source for our body’s engine so we do not need to completely eliminate it, but reducing the quantity of foods with added sugars and replacing them with fruits, vegetables and whole grains will improve our health.
Sodium
Sodium is an essential nutrient and necessary for our body to function, but too much has been linked to high blood pressure and kidney disease. Both reports recommend limiting daily sodium intake to 2300 mg / day or about the equivalent of 1 teaspoon. The advice contained in the previous report for those with hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease, African Americans, and anyone over the age of 51 to limit sodium to 1500 mg daily is now eliminated. Processed foods and restaurant meals are the major sources of sodium, so minimizing them and asking food to be prepared with herbs instead of salt will avoid over-consumption.
The headlines and some of the details have changed, but for the most part the advice has not. Better health results from a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, seafood, plant based forms of protein and fat-free or low-fat dairy foods. Processed foods and fatty meats should be minimized to avoid over-consumption of saturated fats, sodium and sugar.