Dietary guidelines in U.S. crack down on sugar, eases on cholesterol

Some Americans may not have to cut back on eggs and salt as much as they once thought and eating lean meat is still OK. But watch the added sugars, especially the sugary drinks.

Previous guidance on dangers of dietary cholesterol reversed

The Associated Press Posted: Jan 07, 2016 9:56 AM EST | Last Updated: January 7, 2016

After years of doctors saying that Americans shouldn't eat too many eggs, recommendations for cholesterol have shifted. (Matthew Mead/Associated Press)

Some Americans may not have to cut back on eggs andsalt as much as they once thought and eating lean meat is still OK.But watch the added sugars, especially the sugary drinks.

The Obama administration's new dietary guidelines, releasedThursday, back off the strictest sodium rules included in the lastversion, while still asserting that Americans consume too much salt.

The guidelines reverse previous guidance on the dangers of dietarycholesterol and add strict new advice on sugars.

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After a backlash from the meat industry and Congress, theadministration ignored several suggestions from a February report byan advisory committee of doctors and nutrition experts. That panelsuggested calling for an environmentally friendly diet lower in redand processed meats and de-emphasized lean meats in its list ofproteins that are part of a healthy diet.

But as in the previous years, the government still says leanmeats are part of a healthy eating pattern.

Released every five years, the guidelines are intended to helpAmericans prevent disease and obesity. They inform everything fromfood package labels to subsidized school lunches to your doctor'sadvice. And the main message hasn't changed much over the years: Eatyour fruits and vegetables. Whole grains and seafood, too. And keepsugar, fats and salt in moderation.

This year, one message the government wants to send is thatpeople should figure out what type of healthy eating style works forthem, while still hewing to the main recommendations. TheAgriculture Department, which released the guidelines along with theDepartment of Health and Human Services, is also releasing a tweakedversion of its healthy "My Plate" icon to include a new slogan:"My Wins."

"Small changes can add up to big differences," said AgricultureSecretary Tom Vilsack.

One new recommendation is that added sugar should be 10 per centof daily calories. That's about 200 calories a day, or about theamount in one 473-mLsugary drink. The recommendation is part of alarger push to help consumers isolate added sugars from naturallyoccurring ones like those in fruit and milk. Added sugars generallyadd empty calories to the diet.

Sugar-sweetened beverages make up a large portion of those emptycalories. According to the guidelines, sugary drinks comprise 47 percent of the added sugars that Americans eat every day.

Americans also need to lower salt intake, the government says.

New figures from the U.S.Centers for Disease for Disease Control andPrevention show that around 90 per cent of people eat too much. Theaverage person eats 3,400 milligrams of sodium a day, and theguidelines say everyone should lower that amount to 2,300, or abouta teaspoon.

Lowering sodium intake was the major push of the 2010 guidelines,and that document recommended that those most at risk of heartdisease, or about half the population, lower their intake to 1,500.

The new guidelines drop that lower amount as part of the toprecommendations. Still, advice buried deeper in the guidelines saysthat those with high blood pressure and prehypertension couldbenefit from a steeper reduction.

After years of doctors saying that Americans shouldn't eat toomany eggs, recommendations for cholesterol have also shifted. The2010 guidelines made a key recommendation that Americans consumeless than 300 mg a day of dietary cholesterol, or about two eggs.

That recommendation is gone, following increasing medical researchshowing the amount of cholesterol in your bloodstream is morecomplicated than once thought. Some more recent studies have shownlittle relationship between heart disease and how much dietarycholesterol one eats.

Still, egg lovers aren't completely off the hook. Discussion ofcholesterol deeper into the document says "individuals should eatas little dietary cholesterol as possible while consuming a healthyeating pattern."

As in previous years, the report advises limiting saturated fatsto 10 per cent of total calories. And while lean meats are promoted,the government does suggest certain populations, such as teen boysand adult men, should reduce their meat intake and eat morevegetables. Data included in the report shows that males ages 14 to70 consume more than recommended amounts of meat, eggs and poultry,while women are more in line with advised amounts.

While the guidelines always have been subject to intense lobbyingby food industries, this year's version set off unprecedentedpolitical debate, fueled by Republicans' claims the Obamaadministration has gone too far in telling people what to eat.

Congress got involved, encouraging the administration to drop therecommendations based on environmental impact and at one pointproposing to set new standards for the science the guidelines canuse. That language did not become law, however. A year-end spendingbill simply said the guidelines must be "based on significantscientific agreement" and "limited in scope to nutritional anddietary information."

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Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020

Dietary guidelines in U.S. crack down on sugar, eases on cholesterol

Previous guidance on dangers of dietary cholesterol reversed

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