Decoding the U.S. Dietary Guidelines An extra cup or two of coffee is not a problem at all, nor are more eggs, but you’ll want to cut back on sugary drinks, and don’t forget to eat your vegetables. On Thursday the government advisory committee released its recommendations: Environmentally friendly diet – reduce red meat and processed meat products. Unlike the old guidelines, the panel did not recommend reducing dietary cholesterol intake, and noted that the caffeine in coffee is good for everyone. The committee supported stricter salt restrictions, arguing that the American people consume too much salt. For the first time, the guidelines appear to limit sugar intake, arguing that young people (who consume too much sugar) have a particularly serious problem. The U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Health and Public Utilities will include the above recommendations in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines, which will be published at the end of the year. The guide will cover the full range of nutritional patterns, from federal subsidies to school lunches, from food labels to doctors’ recommendations. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said: before the final release of the report (changes) “is not over”, the government will take further input from various sources, may be changed. Compared with the 2010 edition of the guidelines, the new guidelines focus on: more fruits, vegetables and coarse grains; less saturated fatty acids, salt and sugar. The report points out that dietary cholesterol is now considered “not associated with excess nutrition,” which is a radical idea. The latest medical research shows that cholesterol levels in the blood are far more complex than previously understood. The committee concluded that there is no evidence of a “predictable correlation” between cholesterol intake and heart disease, but still recommended a low intake of saturated fatty acids. Earlier reports recommended limiting saturated fatty acid intake to 10 percent of total cholesterol intake. The panel did not recommend an upper limit on daily cholesterol intake, or how many eggs to eat per day. Beware of sugar A committee of physicians and nutritionists recommended that additional sugar intake would add 200 calories per day, or about 16 ounces (about 500 ml) of sugary drinks. The recommendation pushes hard to direct consumers to avoid added sugar in natural foods (such as fruit and milk) in recent years. Americans currently consume 13 percent of their calories from added sugar – 268 calories per day – and older children, teens, and young adults typically consume more. The committee’s recommendation is 10 percent, and panel member Miriam Nelson, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University, said, “That goal is within reach.” Instead of sugary drinks, pure water should be consumed instead of sugar with low-calorie sweeteners. Limit salt gently Salt intake is growing rapidly, with an average of 2.2 grams of salt under a turkey sandwich and a cup of soup – the committee’s recommended daily limit, and excess intake has been linked to heart disease. The 2010 edition of the guidelines recommends limiting salt intake to 1.5 grams per day for people at risk for heart disease. But according to a 2013 report by the Institute of Medicine, there is no clear evidence of benefit from consuming less than 2.3 grams of salt per day. Given that Americans now consume more than 3.4 grams of salt per day, the panel suggested that if it is difficult to reach the goal, try first reducing salt intake by 1 gram per day. Panel member Alice Lichtenstein, a professor at Tufts University, noted: “The new recommendations focus attention on where it should be.” –reduce salt intake and readjust based on further future research. Support for coffee Drinking caffeine appears for the first time in the report and says that drinking coffee is okay and even good for people. There is strong evidence to support that drinking 3 to 5 cups of coffee a day is a healthy diet and can even reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. There is also some advice: don’t get the added calories from cream, milk and sugar; also against the super-sized energy drinks popular in supermarkets; and advise pregnant women to limit their coffee consumption to 2 cups a day. Promote a vegetarian diet The panel recommends a greater consumption of vegetables, water, coarse grains, legumes, nuts and grains. A vegetarian-based diet is “healthier and more environmentally friendly” than the current meat-based diet in the United States. The report does not prevent people from eating meat, and “no food group needs to be completely eliminated for sustainable improvement.” In short, the panel recommends eating less red meat and processed meat products, while noting in a footnote that lean meat is part of a healthy diet. The North American Meat Institute was critical of the report, saying the benefits of lean meat should be prominently advertised, not just in a footnote. ” The recommendations on meat may benefit from feedback from Capitol Hill. Last year, Congress took note of the panel’s environmental concerns and Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack’s statement in the final guidance that “there is only nutritional and dietary information, not extraneous disturbing influences. As well, cardiovascular doctors used to recommend a maximum of one egg a day and 2 eggs a week for the elderly, while now we can eat liberally, provided of course that there is no cholecystitis.