Healthy guidelines: Despite its critics, the new food plan is sensible

“Since the first Dietary Guidelines were released in 1980, external fat on beef has decreased 81% and 65% of the most popular beef cuts sold at retail are lean, a prime example of beef producers responding to consumers’ nutritional preferences”.

The “2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans” provide science-based recommendations on food and nutrition so people can make decisions that may help keep their weight under control and prevent chronic conditions, such as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, Burwell said in a government release.

Like the Dietary Guidelines, his chart finds strong consensus on the benefits of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and yogurt. As the Dietary Guidelines Committee suggested past year, the 2015 Dietary Guidelines emphasize following a healthy pattern of eating rather than meeting specific serving sizes of fruits, vegetables, proteins and grains.

Oils, including those from plants: canola, corn, olive, peanut, safflower, soybean, and sunflower. While I still consider this to be far too little red meat (considering Americans’ red meat consumption is down considerably in the last 30 years while obesity rates continue to escalate), I also have trouble with the committee’s recommendation to consume low-fat or fat-free dairy and avoid saturated fats from butter, whole milk and meat.

The new guidelines also include updated guidance on sodium, cholesterol, and caffeine.

Overall, this edition of the DGAs has put a greater emphasis on overall healthy diet patterns, which include the Mediterranean-style pattern and a healthy vegetarian pattern. Most recently, in partnership with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, the beverage companies announced a nationwide initiative to reduce beverage calories in the American diet. Sodium should be less than 2300mg per day and less if you have high blood pressure or are at risk of having high blood pressure.

The Dietary Guidelines confirm that the vast majority of the population is consuming amounts of caffeine well within safe levels, and that average intakes of caffeine by children and adolescents are low.

The group charged that egg-industry interests powerfully influenced the research underpinning the new advice on cholesterol. A review of the guidelines shows they are narrowly focused on nutrition – much more so than previous iterations. That scientific advisory committee, the suit alleges, relied heavily on egg-industry-funded research findings when it recommended removing cholesterol as a “nutrient of concern” in February. Yet these guidelines aren’t ignored by other federal agencies.

Less than 10% of calories per day from added sugars.

The federal Dietary Guidelines, updated roughly every five years, are not personal dietary advice for American citizens.

Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard professor in the department of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, argues on her blog, Food Politics, that these words are code for foods the USDA doesn’t want to tell you not to eat, at least not explicitly.

Coffee, a beloved beverage that was long viewed with suspicion by physicians, got a surprising boost in the new guidelines. Caffeine may even protect against Parkinson’s disease, the evidence suggests.