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#Post#: 846--------------------------------------------------
New dietary guidelines
By: agate Date: June 30, 2015, 8:53 pm
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From the Berkeley Wellness Letter, July 1, 2015:
[quote]Inside the New Dietary Guidelines
Every five years the USDA and the Department of Health and
Human Services update the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,
which form the basis for federal nutrition policy and serve as
the blueprint for how Americans should be eating to promote
health and reduce the risk of chronic disease and obesity. The
guidelines are based on recommendations made by an advisory
committee that evaluates the latest peer-reviewed research.
In February 2015 this expert panel released its beefy 570-page
report, which identified a healthy diet as one that is rich in
vegetables, fruits, whole grains, seafood, legumes, and nuts;
moderate in low-fat or nonfat dairy products and alcohol (with
caveats); lower in red and processed meats; and low in saturated
fat, sodium, refined grains, and added sugars.
Here's a look at two of the more notable proposals, which
include new thinking about dietary cholesterol and limits on
sugar, plus several other highlights we're applauding.
The recommendations are now undergoing final review, following
a public comment period. There may be some changes still, but
because the government tends to closely follow the committee’s
advice, these are likely to become the official 2015
guidelines, which will be released later this year.
Cholesterol: no longer a 'nutrient of concern'
You might have read headlines such as "Dietary Cholesterol
Doesn't Matter Anymore" and wondered what happened, since for
decades the guidelines have said to limit cholesterol intake to
no more than 300 milligrams a day (200 milligrams for those with
cardiovascular risk factors). The panel decided to drop this
upper limit because there is abundant evidence that the
cholesterol in food has little, if any, impact on blood
cholesterol in most people. Only a small percentage of the
population has a clinically meaningful response to dietary
cholesterol—fewer, in fact, than the 25 to 30 percent of
"hyper-responders" often cited, according to Ron Krauss, M.D.,
director of Atherosclerosis Research at Children's Hospital
Oakland Research Institute and a member of our editorial board.
Of all dietary factors, saturated fats (found mostly in animal
products) and trans fats (from partially hydrogenated oils in
processed foods) raise LDL ("bad") cholesterol much more than
dietary cholesterol does.
For several years now, Berkeley Wellness has questioned this
300-milligram limit, which has caused many people to needlessly
shun high-cholesterol foods like eggs and shrimp. Meanwhile,
many other countries, including Canada, the U.K., and Australia,
have never set limits. Still, not all experts agree that
cholesterol doesn't matter at all anymore—and this new advice
does not give people a green light to overindulge in fatty
meats, butter, whole milk, ice cream, and other cholesterol-rich
foods, many of which are also high in saturated fat or are
unhealthy in other ways. It’s unclear what the final dietary
guidelines will advise regarding cholesterol intake for people
with diabetes or others at high cardiovascular risk.
Added sugars: sweet news
For the first time, the panel set an actual limit for added
sugars (as opposed to the current advice to just "reduce" them).
Americans should get no more than 10 percent of their calories
from added sugar, which amounts to about 12 teaspoons a day for
a person on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet (1 teaspoon equals 4
grams of sugar). It's easy to exceed this limit, and most
Americans do. On average, we consume about 22 teaspoons of added
sugar a day (more than one-third from soft drinks). One 16-ounce
bottle of soda has about 11 teaspoons of added sugar. The
committee even went so far as to recommend a tax on sugary soft
drinks (like the one passed in Berkeley in 2014).
An excess of added sugar plays a major role in the obesity
epidemic and contributes to illnesses including diabetes and
heart disease. Still, the proposed limit, which matches that of
the World Health Organization, is more lenient than what the
American Heart Association recommends: that most women consume
no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar a day (100 calories'
worth) and most men no more than 9 teaspoons (150 calories).
Limiting added sugars will be easier to do in the future, since
food companies will have to list them on the FDA's new nutrition
labels, which were proposed in 2014 and are undergoing
finalization. Of note, the advisory committee does not recommend
using sugar substitutes in place of sugary products as a
strategy for weight management, since their long-term effects
"are still uncertain."
More advice to like
Much to the chagrin of the meat industry, the advisory committee
singled out red and processed meats as foods to specifically
limit (with only a footnote that lean meat can be part of a
healthy diet).
Rather than endorsing a maximum for total fats (currently set at
up to 35 percent of total calories for adults), the
recommendations now call for limiting only saturated fats (to
10 percent of total calories), with no cap on healthy
unsaturated fats, as found in vegetable oils and nuts.
The committee continues to recommend reducing sodium
consumption—to less than 2,300 milligrams a day for the general
population.
New on the menu: coffee. A moderate amount (3 to 5 cups a day,
up to 400 milligrams of caffeine) can be part of a healthy diet
because it is not associated with any long-term health problems
and may actuallyreducethe risk of cardiovascular disease,
diabetes, and other conditions (just watch the cream and
sugar). Higher amounts of caffeine could be problematic,
however, and children and teens are advised to limit or avoid
high-caffeine products.
An additional highlight (and one of our favorites): The new
recommendations de-emphasize individual nutrients in favor of
the totality of the diet, recognizing that there are many ways
to eat healthfully. Some healthy patterns that Americans may
choose to follow include a Mediterranean-style or vegetarian
diet. Another perk of such plant-based diets is that they have
less environmental impact than those heavy in meat and other
animal foods, the committee emphasized.[/quote]
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