HHS and USDA release new dietary guidelines

However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday issued healthy eating guidelines which included a variety of fat sources that were previously no-no’s.

For the first time the guidelines limit added sugar to no more than 10 percent of daily calories. The 2010 guidelines recommend Americans cap cholesterol daily to no more than 300 milligrams. Some more recent studies have shown little relationship between heart disease and how much dietary cholesterol one eats. Despite an advisory committee report released in February 2015 that was supposed to inform the recommendations and cited scientific evidence that healthy diets were “lower in red and processed meat” in order to avoid cardiovascular disease, obesity and other diseases, the dietary guidelines abandoned those findings.

The guidelines recommend a healthy eating pattern such as the Mediterranean or DASH-style diets. The guidance impacts everything from what’s served in school and prison lunches to how food labels work. “This is the first time that the dietary guidelines have recognized that and have limited them appropriately”, UCSF Pediatric Endocrinologist Robert Lustig, M.D. said.

Dana Angelo White, clinical assistant professor of athletic training and sports medicine at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., said: “I am thrilled to see that these revamped [dietary] guidelines are increasing the emphasis on improving overall eating patterns”.

The guidelines encourage Americans to consume a variety of vegetables, fruits, and grains.

The Food and Drug Administration tells Rhode Island Public Radio that it will be taking the new dietary guidelines into account when it reviews food label requirements this year.

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. Main aim of the latest United States guidelines is to reduce rates of obesity, heart disease, type-2-diabetes and other health complications.

This year sugars and sweetened drinks have become enemy number one, much to the chagrin of the soft drink industry.

The government has although given a green signal for the consumption of red meat which has come as a relief for the meat industry.

Dietary guidelines were released today by Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell.