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Welcome to HSPH Nutrition Source Update, an e-letter to help you cut through confusing information and find practical strategies for healthy eating.

February 2011
New U.S. dietary guidelines: Progress, not perfection

US Dietary Guidelines

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released on January 31, 2011, are used to direct federal nutrition and education programs that reach tens of millions of Americans, including school lunch and food assistance programs. The 95-page document is the culmination of a two-year process of scientific evidence review and public hearings that drew thousands of comments from individuals and public health experts, as well as from powerful food industry groups.

 

The new guidelines encourage Americans to eat more foods that deliver healthful nutrients and fewer foods chock full of empty calories and salt, to exercise more and curb screen time, and to maintain healthy weights. In some places, though, the healthy eating messages are obscured. And, critics say, the guidelines still don't go as far as they could to promote eating patterns that lower heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic disease risk. 

Two guidelines that are a step in the right direction

   

1. Eat more foods from plants. The guidelines emphasize eating more vegetables, beans, fruit, whole grains, and nuts, and they highlight healthful plant-based eating patterns, including the Mediterranean diet, as well as vegetarian and vegan eating plans.     

 

veggies on forkLearn more about how to work vegetables and fruit into your daily meal plan.  



2. Eat more fish. Recognizing the role of omega 3 fatty acids in preventing heart disease, the guidelines encourage Americans to eat more seafood--two servings (8 ounces) per week--in place of red meat or poultry. 

 fishLearn more about the health benefits of eating fish and omega 3 fatty acids.  
    

 

...and three that don't go far enough  

 

1. Too lax on refined grains. Though the new guidelines encourage Americans to cut back on refined grains and replace them with whole grains, they still suggest that it is okay to consume up to half of our grains as refined grains such as white bread, white rice, and white pasta--which research demonstrates have adverse metabolic effects and increase the risks of diabetes and heart disease. 

 

healthy eating pyramidThe Healthy Eating Pyramid, from the Dept. of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, puts refined grains at the tip, meaning that they should be used sparingly, if at all. 

 

 

2. Too lenient on red meat. The guidelines still lump red meat together with fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, seeds, beans, and soy products in one food group, newly termed the "protein foods" group. Though they highlight the benefits of replacing some meat or chicken with fish, they gloss over the substantial evidence that replacing red meat with poultry, beans, or nuts, could help prevent heart disease, and that reducing red meat consumption can lower the risk of diabetes.  

protein sources

The Healthy Eating Pyramid, by contrast, puts red meat in the "use sparingly" tip, to emphasize that it's better to get proteins from more healthful sources, such as nuts, seeds, beans, fish, poultry, and eggs.  

 

3. Continued fixation on 35 percent of calories from fat.  Although the new guidelines appropriately decrease the emphasis on percentage of calories from fat, they still set 35 percent as the upper limit. Under these guidelines, broccoli with olive oil would be seen as too high in fat, whereas mashed potato with butter would not.

 

 olive oil

 Learn more about why it's time to stop talking about "low-fat".

 

 

 

Read the full story on the new dietary guidelines. 
Did you know?
global obesity
Obesity doubled worldwide since 1980
A new study shows that in 2008, more than one in ten of the world's adult population was obese, with women more likely to be obese than men. An estimated 205 million men and 297 million adult women were obese--a total of more than half a billion adults worldwide.
Read more
Try it at home

crawfish
In honor of Mardi Gras, March 8, try your hand at a healthy pot of Crawfish Etouffee.