The NIH released their new dietary guidelines yesterday, and surprise, surprise, they look a lot like a healthy diet for maintaining weight! Even included is a prescription for 30-60 minutes of daily exercise. If you haven't seen it, here it is:
Quote:
Oranges, greens, and keep moving
By Marian Uhlman
Inquirer Staff Writer
Amid the confusion over what diet is best to control weight, the federal government yesterday put forward its own recipe: Keep your calories low, your exercise high, and eat lots of orange and dark-green vegetables.
The new dietary guidelines prescribe more specifics for good health than the last update five years ago: People should eat on average 41/2 cups of fruits and vegetables daily, or about nine servings. And each week those servings should be colorful, ranging from hefty amounts of spinach and kale to heaping portions of winter squash and carrots.
People also should limit their salt to less than one teaspoon a day and choose their carbohydrates wisely - including at least three ounces of whole-grain cereals, breads, crackers, rice or pasta every day. They should steer away from trans-fatty acids, widely used to preserve many pastries, cookies, cereals and fried foods.
The government increased its recommended daily exercise regime from 30 minutes to 60, to prevent the gradual, unhealthy weight gain in adulthood. And the guidelines suggest some people will need to work out 90 minutes a day to maintain weight loss.
"This is probably the best diet out there," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson, who has had his own struggles with weight. "And if you follow this diet, you're going to lose weight, you're going to be healthy, and you're going to be able to improve quality of life. And that's what needs to be done. It's common sense."
"It is not too hard," he added.
Don't tell that to David Katz, director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center. "What he should have said is that it's not complicated," Katz said. "But it's hard."
The new guidelines seek to reduce the nation's growing girth by giving people a road map to consume healthier diets, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman said. More than 60 percent of adults weigh too much for their height, and the legion of overweight children is growing at an alarming pace.
She said Americans clearly desire to lose weight: They spend $42 billion a year on diet books and products. Many diets are remarkably similar to one another - and to the government's guidelines - when they reach their maintenance phases: Plenty of fruits and vegetables, an emphasis on whole grains, and moderation with fats.
Ultimately, it's all about calories and exercise. And it's going to take personal initiative, too, Thompson said.
"Let's face it, every American is looking for NIH to come up with that pill," Thompson said, referring to the National Institutes of Health. "It's not going to happen."
Rather, he said, the "medicines are no farther away than the shelves of the grocery and the sidewalks that we can use for a brisk walk."
Some health advocates yesterday welcomed the new guidelines as a step forward.
"It is an advance from the previous version," said Kelly Brownell, director of the Yale University Center for Eating and Weight Disorders. "It has more specificity. I think they also deal much more with weight-control issues."
The guidelines are the "most health-oriented ever," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit health-advocacy group. He praised the advice to limit trans fats and sugars in the diet and to increase fruits and vegetables.
Still, the advocates said the advice alone won't be enough to reshape American bodies.
"For every person who reads this, there are thousands more who are influenced by the toxic messages from the food industry, which basically glorifies eating large amounts of unhealthy foods," Yale's Brownell said. "No amount of publicity for these guidelines can begin to compensate for the damage being done by the inducement to eat a bad diet."
Marion Nestle, a New York University nutrition and food policy expert, said: "They are still not telling people not to eat junk food. And they are entirely focused on personal responsibility with no sense at all of how to teach people how to deal with the environment."
There's also the issue of communicating the new guidelines, which are more specific than in the previous five editions.
"It's a different animal," said Alice H. Lichtenstein, a Tufts University professor and a member of the 2000 U.S. Dietary Guidelines committee. "Providing more detail is better, but the proof is in the pudding: how it is translated, communicated and implemented."
The messages need to resonate with the general public, she said.
The report identifies 41 key recommendations - including 23 targeted for the general public and 18 for special populations such as children, pregnant women, and people over 50.
For instance, children between 2 and 8 should have two cups of fat-free or low-fat milk - or milk products - a day. Children older than 9 should have three servings.
John Peters, head of the Nutrition Science Institute at Procter & Gamble Co., said the challenge would be for people to incorporate the information into their lives. He said industry was getting the message that it would need to offer smaller portions and more explicit labeling.
By themselves, Peters said, the guidelines won't make a dent in the obesity epidemic.
People "need multiple layers of support," he said. "The message has to be constant."
The dietary guidelines are used to develop such government programs as school meals and food stamps. They also will be used to update the Food Guide Pyramid, which appears everywhere, from cereal boxes to school rooms.
How the Guidelines Have Changed
Key differences between updated dietary guidelines and those issued in 2000. These will be incorporated into a new food pyramid.
CALORIES
New guidelines: Women should consume 2,000 calories per day, men from 2,400 to 2,600 calories, between ages 31 and 50.
Old guidelines: Aim for
a healthy weight, based on Body Mass Index.
EXERCISE
New guidelines: Minimum
30 minutes of exercise a day. Sixty minutes to maintain weight. Up to 90 minutes to keep weight off.
Old guidelines: About 30 minutes of exercise daily.
NUTRITION
New guidelines: Eat foods high in nutrients, low in saturated and trans fat, cholesterol, added sugars and salt. Follow the food guide pyramid.
Old guidelines: Follow the pyramid, and pick whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
New guidelines: Eat at least 41/2 cups of fruits and vegetables a day (about 9 servings total) for a 2,000-calorie diet.
Old guidelines: Eat 3-4 servings of vegetables and 2-4 servings of fruit a day.
CARBOHYDRATES
New guidelines: Eat fiber-rich whole fruits and vegetables and whole grains. Consume little added sugar.
Old guidelines: Choose whole grains, fruits and vegetables daily. Moderate sugar intake.
FAT
New guidelines: Keep trans fat low and saturated fat to 10 percent of diet. Eat less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol daily.
Old guidelines: Keep diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol and moderate in total fat.
SALT
New guidelines: Limit salt to one level teaspoon a day.
Old guidelines: Eat and make foods with less salt.
ALCOHOL
New guidelines: If you drink, limit it to one drink per day for women and two for men.
Old guidelines: Same.
Right beside the lead article, on the front page, was another one by an Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, on how impossible these guidelines are to follow, and "do barbeque potato chips count as an orange vegetable?" I thought this second article was insulting, defeatist, and indicative of why new guidelines and education are so desperately needed. There was no third article about how easy it is to eat this way.
Quote:
Guide is hard to swallow in family with limited likes
By Stacey Burling
Inquirer Staff Writer
As the mother of two children, aged 14 and 10, who have never tasted lettuce despite years of desperate pleading, I'll bet my reaction to the new government food guidelines is like a lot of people's:
You're kidding, right?
I wasn't even close to meeting the old guidelines, the ones from eons ago. I do not need more reasons to feel guilty. Or confused. How many orange vegetables are there anyway? Do barbecue potato chips count?
I'm lucky if my kids and husband eat four servings of fruits or vegetables in a day, unless you include spaghetti and pizza sauce. There's no way that's ever going to add up to 41/2 cups. Even I, the most virtuous member of the household, have never eaten two cups of orange vegetables a week in my life or, for that matter, three cups of beans.
There are only six vegetables acceptable to the two boys (they're growing nicely, by the way) in my house: broccoli, peas, corn, green beans, and sweet and white potatoes. I'm not even sure I can count one of those. My 10-year-old "eats" his green beans by carefully splitting each one and ingesting only the tiny seeds inside. On Sunday, he ate five whole beans. My heart swelled. But now that I think about it, corn is yellow, and there's no goal for yellow food, so maybe there are only five vegetables. Alas.
Every day I pack their lunches at breakneck speed with a mixture of guilt and pride. I use whole-wheat bread for their sandwiches. That's good. A lot of moms never even get that far, I console myself. The kids get a fresh fruit - one serving down. Again my choices are limited. They won't peel a banana and will eat apples and pears only when sliced and not brown, cherries only when pitted. So they get grapes, grapes, and grapes with the occasional sliced kiwi thrown in when I'm feeling especially loving.
But it's downhill from there. Yogurt - low-fat milk product, yes, but full of sugar. Chips - I know what you're thinking, but I can't deprive them of all pleasure. And, worst of all, dessert, loaded with saturated and trans fats and sugar. Milk? They won't wait in line to buy it, so I've settled for boxed juice or chemically flavored sugar water with calcium added.
This new tome - the executive summary is 14 pages long - for the first time dictates calories - about 2,000 of them a day for me with a 400-to-600-calorie bonus for my husband. (Don't tell him.) That's good.
But when will I count these calories? I have to make sure I get the right amount of fruits, beans, and dark green, orange and starchy vegetables each week. I've got to measure my salt intake and keep track of my cholesterol intake and make sure I get no more than 10 percent of my calories from saturated fats. I guess I'll carry a measuring cup, calculator and clipboard with me everywhere I go. Or, maybe I'll just hire a personal nutritionist.
She could be friends with the personal trainer I'll need to goad me to do the minimum 30 minutes of exercise a day the government recommends. If I want to maintain my weight, and I do, it says I should exercise an hour a day. If I'm losing weight (in truth, that's really what I want), it says I might want to shoot for 90 minutes a day.
I give up. It's a great day when I have 15 minutes of my own before bedtime, and that's only if I ignore the unread mail, the dirty cat boxes, and that Cub Scout candy order I should fill out.
Does this thing say anything about sleep?
I'll be writing a letter to the editor.
Any thoughts?
These recommendations AREN'T 'hard'.. They're NOT 'complicated' (as stated in the main article). All they are is different than the way too many of us are living today. And that's a testament to how far most of us have strayed from healthy eating and exercise. None of these recommendations are radical or new - why is that columnist so shocked? Isn't this what we've all known all along? Eat your fruits and veggies, move your body, don't eat junk food. Not a surprise.
How discouraging that the columnist is sending out a message that no one can be expected to live their lives this way ... how many of us do? Raise hands please? I'm guessing that most of us already meet all these guidelines and are happy, healthy and well-adjusted people who aren't spending our lives obssessing about food and exercise. It's a LIFESTYLE! And it's really not all that hard or complicated.
It's funny this article stresses eating oranges and dark greens given the new "power" drink I just tried. It's a recipe I got from one of my workout buddies and she made me promise to try it.
You just throw one whole orange, 2 cups of fresh spinach leaves and ice into a blender (with a bit of Splenda if added sweetness is desired). It was very GREEN , but surprisingly, quite tasty. It tasted like fresh orange juice (you couldn't taste the spinach at all).
Anyway, thought I'd put this out there. I have trouble getting in all of my required servings of fruits and veggies and this is going to help me out a bit.
Thanks for posting the article, Mel. It IS disappointing that they would include such a downer article with it. I would have much preferred an article brimming with tips or sample menus structured around the new requirements.
Mel, thank you for posting! The thing that jumped out at me was how the columnist didn't want to "deprive her sons of pleasure" by excluding chips from their lunches. Isn't that one of the hugest problems we all struggle with? Food as friend, food as reward, food as comfort, food as pleasure - I fight every day to see food as just food and use it as fuel, not as an emotional crutch.
I saw this story on the news this morning...kudos to the government for finally updating the food pyramid and stressing fruits and veggies over what I'm sure was the protests of the political organizations of the processed food industry.
Just thought I'd check to see what my local paper, the San Francisco Chronicle had to say about this - for quite some time they have been running feature articles about childhood obesity in the Bay Area, school nutrition, and health...
Aiming straight at the nation's paunch, the U.S. government Wednesday told Americans what nutritionists have been saying for years: Count your calories, get a lot more exercise and make every mouthful pack a nutritional punch.
Those three recommendations are the guts of the 2005 revision of dietary guidelines that try to steer a gluttonous nation toward healthier eating habits. The goal is to reduce dangerously bulging waistlines and prevent heart disease, diabetes and some cancers.
"It's really common sense," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson in announcing the guidelines Wednesday. "It's up to the individual."
While the guidelines are widely ignored by most people, they're important because they form the basis of the government's food policies, dictating what kids eat for school lunches and shaping food stamps and other nutrition programs.
They will also be the foundation of a revised food pyramid, the popular image used to communicate the government's healthy-eating advice to consumers. The new image, which Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said may not even be a pyramid, will be out in another few months.
The guidelines, updated every five years, had been eagerly awaited by nutritionists, consumer groups and the food industry, all of which lobbied furiously during the two-year revision process. At stake are billions of dollars in food spending, and the health of a nation beset by obesity and diabetes.
Compared to the 2000 version, the new guidelines emphasize weight control and up the ante when it comes to exercise. They recommend at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week for everyone, 60 minutes to keep from gaining weight and up to 90 minutes to drop pounds.
For the first time, the guidelines set daily calorie goals: 2,000 for women ages 31 to 50, and 2,400 to 2,600 for men in the same age group.
In telling consumers to "make each calorie count," the new guidelines make clear that if people eat the right foods to get the nutrients they need, there won't be many "discretionary calories" left for junk food.
They also, for the first time, tell people to consume foods and drinks with "little added sugar" and to keep trans fat consumption as low as possible, without specifying an exact level.
Generally, the 69 pages of guidelines emphasize the positive, steering people toward more fruits and vegetables, poly- and monounsaturated fats, more nutritious carbohydrates and lean proteins.
In another first, consumers are urged to eat three 1-ounce servings of fiber-filled whole grains, which should account for half of all their daily carbohydrates. And, the recommendation for milk was increased from two cups a day to three, preferably low-fat or nonfat, to ensure high calcium levels.
The guidelines followed closely the recommendations made last summer by a 13-member committee of scientists, according to the panel's leader, Janet King, a nutrition expert at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute.
"The essence of our message is there. We are extremely pleased," King said.
The food industry also praised the guidelines. Cal Dooley of the Food Products Association, a processors' trade group, said the government was on the right track in emphasizing "the role of physical exercise" as much as dietary restraint. That's the message the industry has been using to defend itself from criticisms, and lawsuits, over its sales of fatty, sugary foods.
Nutrition experts recognized the guidelines as a big step -- but said more remains to be done.
"The new guidelines do represent important progress compared to the current food guide pyramid," said Dr. Walter Willett, chair of the Nutrition Department at Harvard's School of Public Health and an influential voice on nutrition policy.
He praised the guidelines for emphasizing weight control, drawing clear lines between healthy and unhealthy fats and carbohydrates, and limiting sugar.
But he said they still allow for too many refined starches, and don't give people adequate advice in picking their proteins, lumping red meat, fish, chicken and beans all together as nutritional equals.
Marion Nestle, a food policy expert and nutrition professor at New York University, said the guidelines themselves are so confusing that "you need a degree in nutrition to read the report." But a 12-page consumer pamphlet also released Wednesday does a good job of boiling them down for everyday use, she said.
"The real problem is that they totally focus on personal responsibility and don't say anything about how you change the environment to make it easier to do this -- there's nothing on food marketing, TV ads, or after-school activities and safe places for kids to play," Nestle added.
Whatever image replaces the food pyramid will be the center of a public awareness campaign, starting in a couple of months. But the old pyramid didn't keep Americans from piling on the pounds since it premiered 12 years ago.
"It's difficult to find 30 to 60 minutes for physical activity each day with our long commutes, long work hours and sedentary jobs," said King. And it's tough to make every calorie count when high-fat, high-sugar foods are more available than fruits, vegetables and whole grains, she said... -- On the Internet: The guidelines are available online at www.healthierus.gov/dietaryguidelines.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New guidelines for healthy eating
Here are some highlights of the federal government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005, released Wednesday.
Calories and weight: Make calories count. Look for foods that are nutrient-dense. To maintain healthy weight, balance calorie intake with calories expended.
Exercise: Engage in regular physical activity -- for adults, at least 30 minutes most days to reduce risk of chronic disease; about 60 minutes to maintain a healthy weight; and up to 90 minutes to lose weight.
Sugar: Choose foods and beverages low in added sugars.
Fruits: Eat a variety of whole fruits, rather than fruit juices, aiming for 2 cups of fruit a day.
Vegetables: Eat a variety of vegetables, aiming for at least 2 1/2 cups a day. Eat more dark green and dark orange vegetables, such as broccoli, kale, leafy greens, carrots, sweet potatoes and winter squash, as well as beans and peas.
Whole grains: Eat at least 3 ounces of whole-grain foods daily. Make sure that grains listed on the ingredient label say "whole."
Protein: Choose a variety of lean meats and poultry, and include fish, beans, peas, nuts and seeds in your diet.
Calcium: Drink 3 cups of low-fat or fat-free milk daily, or eat an equivalent amount of low-fat yogurt or other dairy foods.
Fats: Limit your intake of fats to 20 to 35 percent of calories; choose foods low in saturated and trans fats and cholesterol.
Sodium and potassium: Eat less than 2,300 mg of sodium daily (about 1 teaspoon of salt). Increase foods high in potassium, such as bananas, which can counteract some of sodium's effects on blood pressure.
Food pyramid: The 2005 guidelines will be used to update the familiar food pyramid, or change it entirely, within the next few months.
I doubt if the Chron would feature commentary like the one Mel posted. If I did see it, you bet your butt that I'D be writing a letter to the Editor, as well! Is that defeatist or what - I realize that for parents - especially these days - time is at a premium, but still it's the health of your kids...
In the last chapter of Fat of the Land (I'll have to quote from memory since I don't have the book here with me right now!) Michael Fumento talks about the health of our children and parents' reasons for not encouraging their kids to eat healthier. I just remember the quote in the book from Rosemary Green: "Go to your child and say 'put your hand in mine. Whose hand is bigger? You have to do what Mommy says because Mommy is bigger.' " When I'm at the store and see little kids picking out stuff like sugary cereals, Lunchables, ice cream bars, cookies, etc and throwing it into the shopping cart without asking Mom or Dad if 'that's okay' and the parents just go along with it, I have to resist the urge to cringe...
I don't count my saturated fat intake, but I eat a diet full of fruits, veg, low fat dairy, healthy oils, legumes, etc., and find that I don't get more than that even though I do eat whole eggs at least a couple of times a week. I don't always eat enough yellow/orange veggies or as much dairy as the recommendations, but I'm pretty close and I don't consider it difficult at all.
Chips and dessert in the same lunch? Aren't chips already a "dessert" type food? And would say, low fat popcorn instead really be such a deprivation? Do people really feed their kids chips every day? (Honestly, my kids are pretty young and didn't even want to eat the mini bags of chips they got at Hallowe'en, so I have no idea.)
My ds has been picky since I started trying to feed him baby food when he was 5 months old. I work with and around his picky-ness without resorting to filling him up with crappy food void of nutrients. He eats too much bread in relation to fruit and veg, but at least it's whole wheat bread. I give him healthier choices most of the time with occasional "treat" food and while his diet is limited (by his choice) at least I'm getting the most nutrients I can into him. Given the choice, he'd never eat a vegetable or fruit, but he's not old enough to make that choice for himself.
Yes Mel, you are so well spoken and outspoken you should write to that paper.... Unbelievable her article really... It almost sounds like she's trying to justify the guilt she feels on how poorly she is feeding her children. Habits CAN be changed, we maintainers are proof of that and the earlier you change them the better really. She says she maintains her weight, but you can have high cholesterol even if you are at the proper weight... not be able to go up a flight of stair either. if you don't exercise regularly...
People like that tick me off they don't even want to attempt it, they just want to be negative before even trying it out... Oh well what can ya do? That's what makes the world turn.... I'm just happy I do what I do and enjoy it too...
THANK YOU.
I wouldn't have know this information was even available without this site.
This information as well as the information on the metabolism is giving me an education. I truly believed that 30 mins of exercise, and 1800 calories a day were possible for me. If it was true for me, I guess I would not constantly be struggling with weight gains. The information in black and white is indisputable. I beleive with this information, weight maintence will be easier.
If you go to nutrition.gov -- I believe it's the official site for these new guidelines -- there's also a diet analyzer program that I really liked. You put in all your food for a day and it shows you how your diet fits into the pyramid, how you do in each category & a variety calculator. There's also an exercise analyzer. Worth taking the time to run through and actually see what you're eating.
Brenda
New Dietary Guidelines
, but surprisingly, quite tasty. It tasted like fresh orange juice (you couldn't taste the spinach at all).
they don't even want to attempt it, they just want to be negative before even trying it out... 
Oh well what can ya do? That's what makes the world turn.... I'm just happy I do what I do and enjoy it too...
