‘Reduced Guilt’ Nutrition Rules Issued

So you didn’t eat your vegetables yesterday and you really overdid it with the double-chocolate cake. Don’t torture yourself with guilt. Just try to do better in the next few days.

That recommendation comes from the American Heart Assn., which has issued reduced-guilt guidelines aimed at getting people to eat right over several days or a week, instead of obsessing over every day or every meal.

The guidelines don’t change the recommended maximum levels of fat and cholesterol in people’s overall diet. But for the first time they cut people a little slack, allowing them to overeat one day if they eat less the rest of the week.

“This fits the theme of consuming a variety of foods and reducing guilt from eating something ‘bad’ now and then,” said Dr. Ronald Krauss, chairman of a panel that developed the revamped guidelines. These are the first changes since 1988 in the AHA guidelines, which were first published in 1961.

In the past, the association recommended daily levels for such things as fat and cholesterol, without suggesting that the levels could be a daily average over a week’s time. The change was made to alleviate frustration among people who felt that meeting the guidelines every day was unrealistic.

The guidelines were published in Monday’s issue of the association’s journal Circulation.