Wisdom Wednesday: 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

These guidelines were released in January, 2016 and have significant updates for the consumer based on good science. However, there are some areas where the good science didn’t translate to the updates. I’ve read the guidelines and a couple of reviews, including one by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in collaboration with Metagenics and the Joslin Diabetes Center.

Here is a summary of some of the areas that fell short:

• Healthy Fats – The Dietary Guidelines recommend reducing fat consumption by consuming fat-free and low-fat dairy products and limiting saturated and trans fats. They also indicated that healthy diets include oils. Including healthy vegetable oils, like olive oil and flax seed oil, is a step in the right direction. These are rich sources of essential fatty acids that are lacking in the American diet. Other oils like sesame seed oil have anti-inflammatory properties and coconut oil is well tolerated by most of the public. Although they do not contain any of the omega fatty acids, they are easily digested and utilized by the body. Trans fats have no redeeming value but research has demonstrated that saturated fat is not necessarily unhealthy. The recommendations should provide information on the proper use of healthy fats, like in cooking. The guidelines should differentiate between a diet that is low in total fat intake versus taking a whole food and reducing its fat content. It is no longer a whole food and should be avoided. Besides, low-fat diets are no more effective for weight loss or maintaining health than any other diet.
• Added sugar – The Dietary Guidelines recommend limiting added sugar to no more than 10% of total calories. Even if a person is not overweight, obese, or suffering from chronic diseases like diabetes, long-term intake of added sugars, like high fructose corn syrup, lead to the development of metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes I am pleased that sugar has been identified as a major factor in chronic disease and that the USDA recommends reducing added sugar. However, in future guidelines they need to go further and recommend diets with no added sugar, limiting sugar consumption to 5% of total caloric intake.
• Grains and Carbohydrates – The Dietary Guidelines recommend that 50% of grains consumed be whole grains. While whole grains can be an important component of a healthy diet, these recommendations remain too supportive of grains and carbohydrates. The nutritional valve of grains beyond empty calories is very limited. It is further reduced by refining these starchy products. Wheat, rice and potatoes have a high glycemic index and should represent less than 25% of caloric intake, even in their whole state.

The Bottom Line - Maintain a healthy weight
Almost 70% of American adults are overweight or obese. The 2015 Dietary Guidelines represent progress toward healthier eating in America. Many nutritionists, myself included, believe that the epidemic status of obesity in the United States warrants increased attention to achieving and maintaining healthy weight.

Low Fat Diets No Better

Low fat diets are often promoted as a superior way to lose weight, but they’re no more effective than other types of diets, a new review indicates.

“We found that low fat diets were not more effective than higher fat diets for long term weight loss,” said study leader Deirdre Tobias, an associate epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

The key to success seems to have more to do with adherence than a specific weight-loss plan, Tobias said. “Being able to stick to a diet in the long term will probably predict whether or not a diet is successful for weight loss,” she said.

The new analysis was published online Oct. 30 in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal. The research was supported by the American Diabetes Association and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

In conducting their analysis, Tobias and her colleagues looked at 53 published studies involving more than 68,000 adults. Those on low-fat diets did lose weight. But, those on low-carbohydrate diets were slightly more than 2 pounds lighter than those on low-fat diets after a follow-up of at least one year. The average weight loss across all groups was 6 pounds, the researchers said.

“The conclusion from this, and similar studies, is that weight loss is not a results of limiting one calorie nutrient over another, and that achieving weight loss is likely a matter of calorie control, in a manner that works for the individual,” said Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis.

FDA Tells Food Industry to Stop Using Artificial Trans Fats

In a move that it says is designed to protect the heart health of Americans, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that food manufactures have three years to remove artificial trans fats from the nation’s food supply.

The FDA ruled that partially hydrogenated oils - the major source of trans fats in the American diet - are no longer “generally recognized as safe,” the designation that for decades has allowed companies to use the oils in a wide variety of food products.

The FDA has estimated that removing partially hydrogenated oils from food could prevent as many as 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths from heart disease every year.

Partially hydrogenated oils are most often found in processed foods such as baked goods like cakes, cookies, and pies; non-dairy creamers; microwave popcorn; frozen pizza; margarine and other spreads; vegetable shortenings; and refrigerated dough products like biscuits and cinnamon rolls.

Companies have until June 18, 2018, to either reformulate their products and remove all partially hydrogenated oils, or petition the FDA to permit specific uses of the oils, the agency said Tuesday.

Food manufacturers have voluntarily lowered the amounts of partially hydrogenated oils in food products by 86% since 2003, and continue to remove them from products, according to the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

Despite this, even savvy consumers still are being exposed to minute levels of trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils, added Susan Mayne, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.