Last, the same advisory committee recommended the new dietary guidelines take into account environmental considerations for the first time in suggesting what foods Americans should eat. Burwell said, “By focusing on small shifts in what we eat and drink, eating healthy becomes more manageable”.
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Most nutrition experts agree people consume far too much sugar, which is linked to an increased risk for heart disease and Type II Diabetes.
“All forms of foods, including fresh, canned, dried, and frozen, can be included in healthy eating patterns“.
What is most notable about the new guidelines is that they appear to be more flexible in an effort to encourage more Americans to eat a variety of [healthy] foods in a way to which it will be easier for many to adapt. That panel suggested calling for an environmentally friendly diet lower in red and processed meats and de-emphasized lean meats in its list of proteins that are part of a healthy diet. The guidelines continue to reveal that eating lean meat is OK. “Americans need clear, scientifically sound information about how their dietary choices affect their health and the health of the planet”.
Eating less red meat is linked to a lower risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as a lower risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer, the guidelines say. For the first time, the guidelines limit sugar to no more than 10 percent of daily calories.
Rhode Islanders who want to follow the federal government’s new dietary guidelines may find it a challenge, especially when it comes to sugar.
The guidelines did set some daily numeric limits. The 2010 guidelines made a key recommendation that Americans consume less than 300 mg a day of dietary cholesterol, or about two eggs.
“If you just drink one can of pop a day, that’s going to be a wheelbarrow full of sugar”.
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Saturated fats now make up 11 percent of the calories in a typical USA diet, and less than a third of Americans limit their saturated fat intake to the new goal of fewer than 10 percent of daily calories, the guidelines state. They affect the foods chosen for the school lunch program, which feeds more than 30 million children each school day, and they help shape national food assistance programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, which has 8 million beneficiaries.
