The new Dietary Guidelines tells Americans to eat less calories, salt
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USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sibelius jointly announced on Jan 31 the releasing of the 7th edition of dietary guidelines for Americans.
The new dietary guidelines for Americans emphasizes adequate eating and physical activity patterns to promote health and prevent overweight, obesity and diet-related chronic diseases.
"The 2010 Dietary Guidelines are being released at a time when the majority of adults and one in
three children is overweight or obese and this is a crisis that we can no longer ignore,” said
Secretary Vilsack.
In a nutshell, the new 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends balancing calories with physical activity and consuming more healthy foods such as vegetables, fruit, whole grains, fat-free and low fat dairy products and seafood while cutting consumption of sodium, saturated fat and trans fat, added sugars in foods and beverages and refined grains.
Specifically, the Dietary Guidelines encourages Americans to eat fewer calories, more fruit and vegetables, more fat free or low fat milk, less salt or sodium, and drink water instead of sugary beverages.
In principle, the U.S. government encourages people to better eat and exercise to prevent or reduce risk of overweight and obesity, better control intake of calories (obese people need to eat fewer calories), intensify physical activity and maintain adequate calories balance.
The Dietary Guidelines offers 23 key recommendations for all Americans and six recommendations for specific population groups.
What American should eat more include beverages and fruits particularly dark-green and read and orange vegetables and peas and peas, consume at least half of all grain products as whole grains, increase intake of low fat dairy products including milk, yogurt, cheese or fortified soy beverages, use a variety of protein sources including seafood, lean meat, poultry, eggs, beans and peas, soy products, and unsalted nuts and seeds, use less saturated fat and use foods that provide more nutrients like potassium, dietary fiber, calcium, and vitamin D.
For child-bearing women, the Dietary Guidelines recommends foods that provide heme iron, which comes largely from red meat and foods that help absorb iron such as vitamin C rich foods. These women should also consume 400 micro-grams per day of synthetic folic acid in addition to folate from natural foods.
For women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, the Dietary Guidelines say they should eat 8 to 12 ounces of seafood each week, but limit intake of white (albacore) tuna to 6 ounces a week and avoid eating tilefish, shark, swordfish and king mackerel due to the high levels of methyl mercury, which causes harm to the nervous system. The Dietary Guidelines also says pregnant women should use an iron supplement as recommended by their doctors.
For individuals ages 50 years and older, the Dietary Guidelines recommends consuming foods with high levels of vitamin B12, which studies suggest helps prevent cognitive impairment in elderly people.
The Dietary Guidelines say sodium intake should be no more than 2,300 milligrams and for those ages 50 and older and those who have hypertension, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease, daily intake of sodium should be no more than 1,500.
The Dietary Guidelines suggests Americans should limit intake of saturated fatty acids to less than 10% of calories, cholesterol to 300 mg each day, and trans fat to as lower as possible. Saturated fat, added sugar, refined grains and alcohol should be limited.
The United States Department of Agriculture is required by law to revise the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is intended for all Americans at the age of 2 years and older every five years.
David Liu
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