Updated US Dietary Guidelines have New Focus

“Now excess sugars have always been discouraged but this year the guidelines took it a step further and they actually put an upper limit on how much excess sugar we should have, which is less than 10 percent of our daily calories”.

“By focusing on small shifts in what we eat and drink, eating healthy becomes more manageable”, said Secretary Burwell.

The advice to cut back on sugar echoes similar advice from the World Health Organization and other groups, which have cited evidence that lowering added sugar could reduce the risk of obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer.

The new dietary guidelines promote a healthy eating pattern and encourage a diet high in vegetables, whole fruits and 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. Updated every five years, the government recommendations have been credited – or blamed (depending on whom you ask) – for shaping the eating habits of generations of Americans. For example, from 1980 to 1990 the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said we should avoid cholesterol altogether, but in 1995, the government agencies recommended to consume no more than 300 milligrams of cholesterol a day.

“With obesity and its associated health consequences – namely type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease – on the rise throughout our country, the AMA also is extremely pleased that the new recommendations call for significantly reducing the amount of added sugars and sugar sweetened beverages from the American diet”.

As a whole, Americans – and especially teenage boys and men – are being urged to eat less animal protein and more vegetables. Sodium consumption should be limited to 2,300mg a day – or one teaspoon.

In another departure from past dietary guidelines, the new ones do not contain any restrictions on foods containing dietary cholesterol, such as eggs.

But they’ve dropped longstanding advice to limit cholesterol from eggs and other foods in its “key recommendations”.

According to the guidelines, eggs may be better for you than once thought. And instead of “eat less meat”, they say less than 10 percent of your diet should come from saturated fats. American adults also consume about 50 percent more sodium than the Dietary Guidelines recommends. There’s actually stronger evidence tying saturated and trans fat to high blood cholesterol levels, says Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, RD, professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University and spokesperson for the American Heart Association.

Studies done recently showed that Americans eat too much salt, and that comes with a lot of risks.