Proposed Dietary Guidelines Take Aim at Obesity Slashing Salt and Fat, Increasing Vegetables and Exercise Recommended

By Denise Mann
WebMD Health News Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
June 15, 2010 -- By encouraging Americans to slash their salt intake, eat a plant-based diet, and increase physical activity, the newly proposed 2010 Dietary Guidelines take aim at the obesity epidemic.

As it stands, two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, and obesity is “the single greatest threat to public health in this century,” according to the report, which was developed by a 13-member board of scientists and nutritionists and is open to a one-month public comment period.

The dietary guidelines are updated every five years and issued by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services. The final report is slated to be released later this year.

Specifically, the newly proposed guidelines suggest reducing sodium intake from 2,300 milligrams to 1,500 milligrams per day and stress a vegetarian-style diet rich in vegetables, cooked dry beans and peas, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and seeds with only moderate amounts of lean meats, poultry, and eggs.

The guidelines also call for cutting back on sugary sodas and beverages and eating less saturated fat. As to what Americans should eat more of, the guidelines suggest seafood and low-fat dairy products.

Also recommended is physical activity. The guidelines recommend at least 2 and 1/2 hours of moderate-intensity physical activity or 1 and 1/4 hours of a vigorous-intensity activity each week for adults. An hour or more of moderate-intensity to vigorous physical activity each day is optimal for children and teens.

The guidelines also encourage enhanced nutrition education, efforts to motivate families to cook more healthfully, and improved access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

"We have had the same dietary recommendations for 30 years and every year, we update the science but our diets are the same,” says Margo G. Wootan, PhD, the nutrition policy director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group based in Washington, D.C.

Now “we look beyond wagging fingers and saying ‘eat more fruits and vegetables’ and look at barriers and call for a national strategy to help people follow the recommendations,” she says.

“We need a fundamental shift in the food environment,” she tells WebMD. “The majority of choices at restaurants are unhealthy, but it needs to be the opposite where the majority of choices are healthy and there are a couple of splurge options for special occasions,” she says.

As far as salt goes, the newly suggested reductions are possible, but they won’t happen overnight. “We need time for product reformulations, and this also gives people time to change their taste for sodium,” she says. “The problem is not the salt shaker, it is the food manufacturers and restaurants."

http://www.webmd.com/diet/slideshow-diet-mistakes

Tatyana Sampson
WELLNESS Trainer

www.loseweightnow.com/tatyana
www.tanya.weightlosschallenge.ru
Skype- tanchora2
+1(832) 368-3958

What's New? We are!

Come Join Us!  Tatyana Sampson WELLNESS Trainer www.loseweightnow.com/tatyana www.tanya.weightlosschallenge.ru Skype- tanchora2 tatyana.sampson@gmail.com +1(832) 368-3958 Can't make it to one of our meeting times? Call or email me for an Individual Appointment. We offer a great atmosphere for sharing wellness and health information related to good nutrition.   Please come and enjoy our delicious shakes and energy teas. You can feel the difference. We did! Let us share our experience and results with you. You'll be glad you did. We invite you to bring your friends and family with you. Just give us a call or email us. The Most Important Meal of the Day By Rallie McAllister, WebMD, May 2006 While adults need to eat breakfast each day to perform their best, kids need it even more. Their growing bodies and developing brains rely heavily on the regular intake of food. When kids skip breakfast, they can end up going for as long as eighteen hours without food, and this period of semi starvation can create a lot of physical, intellectual and behavioral problems for them. +A Good Investment If you and your kids regularly skip breakfast in the interest of saving time or getting a few more minutes of sleep, remember that eating a wholesome, nutritious morning meal will probably save you time in the long run. By recharging your brain and your body, you'll be more efficient in just about everything you do. Interestingly, studies show that kids who skip breakfast are tardy and absent from school more often than children who eat breakfast on a regular basis. Preparing a good breakfast can be as quick and easy as splashing some milk over cereal. Time invested in breakfast is much more valuable than the few extra minutes of sleep you might get by bypassing the morning meal. If you and your kids seem unable to make time for breakfast, consider enrolling your children in a school breakfast program, if possible, or pack a breakfast brown-bag the night before so that you and your kids can eat on the way to school and work.   Break the Fast to Shed the Pounds Some people skip breakfast in an effort to lose weight, but the practice is more likely to cause weight gain than weight loss. Skipping breakfast is strongly linked to the development of obesity. Studies show that overweight and obese children, adolescents, and adults are less likely to break the fast each morning than their thinner counterparts. According to research, skipping meals, especially breakfast, can actually make weight control more difficult. Breakfast skippers tend to eat more food than usual at the next meal or nibble on high-calorie snacks to stave off hunger. Several studies suggest that people tend to accumulate more body fat when they eat fewer, larger meals than when they eat the same number of calories in smaller, more frequent meals. To teens, especially teenage girls, skipping breakfast may seem like a perfectly logical way to cut down on calories and lose weight. It's important for moms to educate their kids about the importance of the morning meal and the role it plays in maintaining good health and preventing obesity.