Download New Dietary Guidelines unfortunately offer outdated advice

Article for the January 21, 2015 edition of the Herald News Living Well Section
New Dietary Guidelines unfortunately offer outdated advice
Every January for the past five years I’ve written about the changing nutrition recommendations
that have come from recent research. This past year, those changes have been substantial and
very important for anyone dealing with weight gain or diabetes and have implications for the
prevention of heart disease. Unfortunately, the new USDA Dietary Guidelines that were issued
last week are not moving the needle closer what the latest research is showing.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) publishes an updated set of recommendations for the
types and amounts of foods that we consume. These are reflected in the nutrition panel on every
packaged food item in our stores and heavily influence the types and amounts of foods served in
our schools, hospitals and the military. They are also the basis for federal programs like WIC and
SNAP. In fact, about one out of every four meals served in this country are regulated by the
USDA. For those of us who choose to follow the recommendations, the choices we make are
also heavily influenced by these Guidelines. Let me summarize what the new Guidelines are
saying:
On the positive side:
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A report by the Guidelines Committee over a year ago stated that “cholesterol is not
considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.” This stance adopted in the new
Guidelines signals a vast departure from Guidelines set just five years ago and can help
people to now include cholesterol-containing foods, like eggs, shrimp, butter and cheese
in their diet.
The report also limits added sugar in foods. Most U.S. adults are eating too much sugar,
and that's linked to an increased risk of dying from heart disease, according to researchers
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unlike sugars that occur naturally
in fresh ingredients like fruit, added sugars are incorporated into food during processing
and preparation. For the first time, the Committee recommended that Americans limit
added sugar to no more than 10 percent of daily calories — about 12.5 teaspoons, the
same amount of sugar found in a can of Coke. Sugar, not dietary fat, is now strongly
linked to the development of heart disease. Americans consume 22 to 30 teaspoons of
added sugar daily, half of which come from soda, juices and other sugary drinks. The
panel said sugary drinks should be removed from schools and endorsed the addition of a
new line for added sugars on food nutrition labels.
On the not-so-positive side:
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In the case of dietary fat, while the Committee has not specifically limited the amount of
total fat in the diet as the 2010 and 2005 Guidelines did, the new Guidelines continue to
recommend low-fat dietary choices. "I think it is crucial for all government agencies to
formally state that there is no upper limit on fat," stated cardiologist Dariush Mozaffarian,
Dean of the Friedman School of Dietary Science and Policy at Tufts University who
recommends that dietary fats be included in an overall pattern of eating primarily because
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nutrient dense foods like meat, fish, dairy products and nuts in their unprocessed forms
contain natural fats, and there is no reason not to consume them.
The Guidelines continue to recommend limiting saturated fats to 10% of total calories,
despite the fact that numerous research studies over the past five years have found no
connection between saturated fats in the diet and heart disease mortality. Some studies
even suggest that saturated fats in milk and cheese actually lower cardiovascular risk as
well as diabetes. The advice to limit saturated fats may continue to drive people away
from dairy products such as yogurt toward eating more added sugars as these are often
used to replace fats in these products.
While the Guidelines do suggest that there is not a single healthy diet and describes a
“Healthy US-Style”, a “Healthy Mediterranean-Style” and a “Healthy Vegetarian Style”
of eating, each style recommends that over 50% of the diet consist of carbohydrates and
that less than 34% of fats. In 1965, when there was no obesity or diabetes epidemic in the
United States, the American diet was less than 40% carbohydrate and 45% fat. (Protein is
essentially equivalent in all of these diets.) It’s this increase in carbohydrate and decrease
in fats that can account for much of the population weight gain over the past fifty years,
so these recommendations are not likely to be helpful in improving health and decreasing
disease.
Adele Hite, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the nonprofit Healthy Nation Coalition,
has attributed the explosion of obesity and chronic disease in the United States over the past forty
years to earlier versions of the Guidelines that steered people away from nutritious whole foods,
like meat, eggs, butter and milk and urging people to eat more grains, produce, cereals and
vegetable oils. Let’s hope that when the Guidelines are reviewed by the National Academy of
Medicine later this year as mandated by Congress, they will make recommendations more in line
with current science to help people adopt healthier eating styles.
For more information about the nutrition sessions and low-carb diets, call 508-679-0922 or go to
www.FallRiverFitnessChallenge.com and look for the “How can I eat better” link on the left. Dr.
Weed runs a free low-carb nutrition support group every Saturday following weekly Challenge
events from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the Kuss Middle School.
Low-carb support group follow each Saturday Greater
Fall River Fitness Challenge at Kuss Middle School
Sugar-sweetened beverages are strictly limited in the
new Dietary Guideline recommendations because of their link to heart disease.
Consumption of vegetables is clearly recommended
in the new Dietary Guidelines.
Lifting the limit on cholesterol means that eggs are
back on the menu.
Healthy fats founds in foods like fish should be part of
everyone’s diet.
Saturated fats found in meat, dairy and some vegetable
oils are no longer connected to heart disease.
All photos by David Weed