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.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.
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.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?
Any thoughts?
Mel
, 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...