Changes in dietary guidelines and the recommendations proposed are confusing, but here’s some advice as to what you should eat. It’s also time to wake up and start taking charge of what you put in your body and what we are doing to the environment.

What foods should you eat?
Dietary Guidelines Dietary guidelines are updated every five years since 1980 by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) put together jointly by Dept. of Health and Agriculture.
Here are the basic recommendations: Limit sugar, salt and saturated fat (meat, dairy, cheese).

While changes in dietary guidelines suggested de-emphasizing nutrients, it singled out sugar and fat both of which are which in addition to protein make up caloric nutrients. The problem is that sugar and also starch comprise what we call the carbohydrate nutrient and the main force driving obesity due to the effect on what is called glycemic load. The glycemic load (GL) of food is a number that estimates how much the food will raise a person’s blood glucose level eating it.

There are three basic macro nutrients that comprise a calorie: protein, carbohydrates and fat. Carbohydrates come from sugar, starch and fiber. Foods that contain sugar that are not real are very addicting and harmful. Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that your body can’t digest; therefore it does not affect your blood sugar levels. When you are looking for a carbohydrate you should select the one that has the most fiber and the least net carbohydrates (carbs-fiber). Grains are also carbohydrates and when selecting one you want to choose the one that has the lowest net carbs and the most fiber and protein. Some grains like quinoa or legumes such as lentils have protein and a lot of fiber which offset’s the negative effect of the sugar.

The point is to focus on net carbohydrates and balance that with the right amount of protein. In that sense the dietary guidelines were not helpful in explaining what reducing sugar means and recommending a de-emphasis of focusing on nutrients is also steering people in the wrong direction. People need to be better educated about what really is making them fat. Its carbs loaded with starch and sugar. This does not mean that you should not pay attention to the type of protein you eat as saturated fat found in animal protein and packages foods is the other reason people are so overweight.

Changes in dietary guidelines report also singled out teenage boys and men suggesting they said should “reduce their overall intake of protein foods” and add more vegetables. It is not clear why they singled out teenage boys and men.

Changes in dietary guideline recommended we that think in terms of overall patterns of healthy eating which means a diet, such as eating a Mediterranean type diet or Vegan. Vegan’s refrain from eating animal products but also any animal derived products such as eggs and dairy.

The Mediterranean diet emphasizes eating primarily plant-based foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts, and replacing butter with healthy fats, such as olive oil. Using herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foods. Meat and dairy is limited in favor of fish, vegetables, legumes and grain. The problem with this is whole grains even those called ‘whole’ contain a lot of sugar (carbohydrates) and would not be a good choice if you are trying to lose weight.
Once again the main things to learn to dislike are carbohydrates comprised mostly of sugar and starch (that includes grain) and saturated fat. High-fiber foods that are low in net carbohydrates can act like a sponge and binds to cholesterol, helping to remove excess cholesterol that’s floating in the bloodstream.

When you shop, you should get in the habit of looking at the back of the package to see what the food contains. Plant based food that grows from the ground naturally has a healthy glycemic ration to begin with. That means it contains fiber to offset the sugar. This is not as much the case with fruit, so that might be a food that you limit when trying to lose weight. The best fruit to eat is blueberries for its glycemic efficiency and anti-oxidant values.
The other important change in the dietary guidelines was to no longer pick on eggs as the culprit in high cholesterol for years we have been told to limit cholesterol to 300 miligrams a day less than the amount in 2 eggs.

Dietary guidelines recommend removed the limits on dietary cholesterol thus in effect advocating eggs, but once again it should be stress that a diet that includes unsaturated fat is both filling and supports the rise of healthy cholesterol (LDL) or low density lipoproteins as opposed to saturated fat which increases (HLD) cholesterol that comes from high density lipoproteins.

LDL’s can be found in foods such as fish high which is high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, tuna, trout, herring, or king mackerel, at least twice a week. Other good sources of unsaturated fats include chia seeds, avocados, almonds, walnuts, and olive oil (avoid hydrogenated and canola oil.)

The problems are that dietary guidelines are almost identical to those of the last 35 years which has paralleled the time when both obesity and diabetes have skyrocketed. Suggesting a 10% cap on the calories that come from sugar added to foods and that only 10% of saturated fats per day of calorie intake. They did not provide an easy way to know how to monitor that it also did not mention processed meats which were recently found to be carcinogenic by the World Health Organization (WHO). You can download and access an easy to follow guideline on how to eat healthy and lose weight that has worked for many of my clients here.

 
Finally, top administration officials within the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, who were tasked with writing the guidelines, decided not to include some of the recommendations made by a Dietary Guidelines advisory panel that reviewed the latest nutrition science. For instance, the advisory committee had recommended including sustainability as a factor in making food choices, but administration officials nixed that idea.

The committee had also advised telling Americans to cut back on red and processed meats. But that recommendation sparked a push back from the meat industry, and the final dietary guidelines do not include any specific advice to cut back on these sources of protein. This actually would be a great idea, to talk about the harmful effects of eating red meat not only for the body but for the environment.

According to a 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), our diets and, specifically, the meat in them cause more greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, and the like to spew into the atmosphere than either transportation or industry.

It’s time to wake up and start taking charge of what you put in your body and what we are doing to the environment.