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On Thursday Feb. 19 the U.S government together with a committee of health and nutrition experts released new dietary guidelines: emphasis on less sugar, but lower restrictions on cholesterol.
After going through the latest dietary medical papers, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) made a few modifications to the national dietary guidelines which are re-edited once every 5 years.
The modifications are related to adopting an “environmentally friendly” diet, with people needing to lower their intake of processed and red meats. This type of diet has a lower number of calories and focuses more on plant-based foods rather than the animal-based ones. So, the attention is on vegetables, fruits and whole grains.
New recommendations also say that the amount of daily sugar has to be minimized to less than 10 percent of the daily calorie intake. This means that the option of switching from normal sodas and sports drinks to their low-calorie alternatives is no longer considered a good enough option. This conclusion was reached due to the fact that there was “inconsistent evidence” regarding diet sodas and their benefits in losing weight. So, everyone should just stick to drinking water.
In comparison to the 2010 set of guidelines where only 300 milligrams of cholesterol were allowed daily, the present recommendation states that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove a link between cholesterol as part of a daily diet and the increased levels of cholesterol on the blood.
Furthermore, the amount of recommended sodium per day for people at risk for cardiovascular disease has been set to less than 1,500 milligrams per day. The standard limit has remained the same, 2,300 milligrams daily.
In regards to coffee, the new set of guidelines stated that the number of recommended daily amount of coffee is between 3 and 5 cups. Recent studies showed that this “daily dose” can help reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even Parkinson’s disease. There were, however, some cautions added, against adding excess sugar and “high-fat dairy or dairy substitutes”.
The guidelines will be released in final form at the end of this year.
Image Source: Noah Health
