New Dietary Guidelines OKs Lean Meat, But Cuts Added Sugar

A lifetime of healthy eating helps to prevent chronic diseases like obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and Type 2 diabetes.

“Protecting the health of the American public includes empowering them with the tools they need to make healthy choices in their daily lives”, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said in a statement today.

Most nutrition experts agree people consume far too much sugar, which is linked to an increased risk for heart disease and Type II Diabetes.

The overarching message is the same: The guidelines recommend that Americans eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, a mix of proteins (lean meats, nuts, and seafood), and oils.

New dietary guidelines for 2015-2020 have arrived, just in time to assist people whose New Year’s resolutions involved better eating.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture have released the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

New dietary guidelines released by the government reveal some Americans may not have to cut back on eggs and salt as much as they once thought, but they are advised to limit added sugars. Alcohol consumption, if any, should be moderate, but “it is not recommended that individuals begin drinking or drink more for any reason”, the guidelines note.

“I think that nutrition is a moving target and that certainly things have been changing and some criticisms that have come out from dietary guidelines are due to the expectation that we’re supposed to know everything and we don’t”.

In a departure from the 2010 guidelines, the advice to limit cholesterol in the diet to 300 milligrams a day is overturned.

You might want to shift your focus away from what you eat to concentrate on what you drink.

The CDC report goes on to point out that the large majority of Americans are not going to be able to limit their calories to just 10% from sugar or fat, especially if they are going to manage to eat sufficient fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

The previous guidelines recommended limiting cholesterol intake to 300mg per day, while the 2015 version removes that set limit and simply advocates eating as little dietary cholesterol as possible. Sugar should make up no more than 10 percent of your daily calories.

These new guidelines take the small-changes approach when aiming to adopt a healthy diet in hopes that these small steps create a more sustainable lifestyle of healthy eating.

But complying with these new guidelines requires either knowing exactly how much added sugar is in a particular item, or avoiding processed foods altogether.