A Diet for Every Body
Americans searching for the Holy Grail of healthy eating may no longer need to look any further.
Five of the nation’s leading health organizations have united to endorse a diet plan that, they say, represents the best and latest scientific advice for helping to prevent most major diseases.
Health officials hope to convince Americans that faddish, specialized diets are a waste of time and that a single, simple food plan is the best strategy for staying healthy. Moreover, they say, this diet can help resolve the confusion over how to eat if you’re interested in trying to prevent specific diseases.
“The good news is that we don’t need one diet to prevent heart disease, another to decrease cancer risk and yet another to prevent obesity and diabetes,” says Dr. Richard J. Deckelbaum, a professor of pediatrics and nutrition at Columbia University in New York City who helped prepare the guidelines. “A single healthy diet cuts across disease categories to lower the risk of many chronic conditions.”
The organizations endorsing the guidelines are the American Heart Assn., American Cancer Society, American Dietetic Assn., American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Institutes of Health. Each group already had its own dietary guidelines. The groups gathered in Salt Lake City two years ago to discuss developing a joint recommendation.
“Our idea was to first just meet to see if there were major differences. But [the groups’ dietary recommendations] were all essentially in consensus with one another,” Deckelbaum says.
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With the new “Unified Dietary Guidelines”--to be published next month in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Assn.--the experts hope Americans will see that healthy living is not all that complicated.
“We feel if we give the public similar messages they may have more incentive,” says Dr. Edward A. Fisher, director of lipoprotein research at New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Cardiovascular Institute. “This also gives health providers motivation to keep hitting people over the head with this diet.”
The unified diet may give institutions such as hospitals, nursing homes, schools and even restaurants a noncontroversial way to provide healthy food, says Dr. Shelley Shapiro, a cardiologist with the USC Health Science Center and an American Heart Assn. spokeswoman.
“The revolutionary part of this is that different groups choose to come together and try to reach a consensus,” Shapiro says. “Before it was very confusing with the American Diabetes Assn. having one set of advice and the American Cancer Society another. Hospitals would offer different diets. For example, the diabetic diet would have more fat in it. But if you have a patient who is diabetic and also has heart disease, the cardiologist [taking care of the patient] would have a tizzy if the patient was on the diabetic diet.”
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Officials also hope the unified guidelines will convince the vast majority of Americans who don’t need special diets to dispense with fad diets, he says.
“Fad nutrition is big business in Los Angeles. Maybe with these guidelines, we can put people on the right track,” Fisher says.
Fad diets often lack scientific evidence to prove they work, he says. The unified guidelines, however, are backed by an ample body of science.
“When we come out with a recommendation it’s only because we have the evidence to support it,” Fisher says. “The problem with diet books is that the scientific evidence is lacking to support most of the programs.”
And, added Shapiro, disputes over some tenets of the guidelines have now been laid to rest.
“This diet is being published after some things [scientists] thought would be beneficial have already been thrown out,” including the theory that a very low-fat diet could help prevent breast cancer or that high beta carotene intake could help reduce heart disease, she says.
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The unified guidelines, however, are hardly sexy. Summarized into four major points, they are:
* Consume a variety of foods.
* Decrease fat intake.
* Increase consumption of fruit, vegetables and whole grains.
* Consume only enough calories to maintain a proper weight.
The authors of the statement also point out that proper weight is best achieved with regular exercise. And they note that stopping smoking and consuming little or no alcohol are the cornerstones--along with the dietary guidelines--of good health behavior.
Sounds simple. But Americans have a long way to go to embrace the plan. One-third of adults either smoke or drink too much. And one-third of Americans are obese.
“It has been hard getting people to follow the [U.S. Department of Agriculture] food pyramid, which is similar to these guidelines,” Fisher says. “We have not done a good job of getting people to realize that you’re probably going to die of heart disease or cancer.”
The unified guidelines are not difficult to adhere to, experts insist. For example, says Fisher, most people can reduce their fat and calorie intake to acceptable levels by making modifications like switching to low-fat dairy products, drinking diet soda instead of regular soda and removing the skin from chicken.
“If two-thirds of their diets comes from plant sources they would be following most of the guidelines,” Deckelbaum says.
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The authors noted that they still have much to learn, such as why so many people are obese; how the Recommended Daily Allowances for certain nutrients can be improved; and how specific substances in foods affect disease. More research is also needed on the dietary needs of special populations, such as the elderly. More specific advice might be added to the guidelines in the future.
Finally, the document noted, despite the efforts of the major health groups, too many people choose not to follow dietary guidelines.
“We can have guidelines out the wazoo. But people are going to select their own food and put it in their mouths,” says Fisher. “I mean, even at McDonald’s the nutritional information is posted right there in front of you.”
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The Unified Guidelines
Abide by the numbers
* The examples show an assortment of foods that someone on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet could eat before reaching the guideline maximum.
10% or less of calories from saturated fat.
Found in higher concentrations in meat, poultry, butter, whole milk, coconut and palm oil.
* EXAMPLE: 1 tablespoon of margarine, 6 ounces of lean ground beef, 1/2 cup ice cream, and one cup 1% milk.
30% or less of calories from total fat.
Found in higher concentrations in salad dressings, baked foods, chips, crackers, chocolate, nuts, avocados, meat, poultry, fish, eggs cheese and fried foods.
* EXAMPLE: 1 tablespoon of margarine, 6 ounces of lean ground beef, 1/2 cup ice cream, one cup 1% milk, and 2 ounces mozzarella cheese.
10% of less of calories from polyunsaturated fat.
Found in higher concentrations in corn, safflower or soybean oils or in fat from seafood. The oils are often found in processed baked goods.
* EXAMPLE: Two tablespoons corn oil, 1 tablespoon canola oil.
15% or less of calories from monounsaturated fat.
Found in higher concentrations in canola oil, oil made from nuts and olive oil.
* EXAMPLE: Three tablespoons canola oil, 2 tablespoons stick margarine.
300 mg. or less cholesterol per day.
Found in high concentrations in egg yolks, meat, poultry, seafood, dairy products and butter.
* EXAMPLE: One egg with yolk, 1 cup 1% milk, 2 ounces mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup ice cream, 3 ounces of tuna packed in water.
Six grams per day or less salt intake.
* EXAMPLE: One box convenience rice, 1 medium dill pickle, 1 cup chicken broth, 3 ounces ham, 2 ounces potato chips, 1/2 tsp. table salt.
Look for the good stuff
* Eat a variety of foods.
* Choose most of the foods that you eat from plant sources.
* Eat five or more servings of fruit and vegetables each day.
* Eat six or more servings of bread, cereals, pasta and/or rice per day.
Beware of the traps
* Limit intake of high-fat foods, particularly those from animal sources.
* Total calorie intake enough to achieve and maintain a desirable weight.
* Choose foods low in saturated fat, cholesterol and total fat.
* Choose a diet moderate in simple sugars.
Special populations have special needs
* CHILDREN: These guidelines apply to anyone older than 2. Children age 2 to 5 should be phased into the diet. Special attention should be paid to make sure children get enough calcium (example: milk), iron (example: beef) and zinc (example: beef).
* ELDERLY: The elderly should pay special attention to how undernourishment, disease or medications might interfere with this diet.
* WOMEN: Women need to pay special attention to getting enough iron (example: fortified breakfast cereal), calcium (example: yogurt) and folic acid (example: spinach).
* MINORITY POPULATIONS: Certain ethnic groups have higher rates of disease and should be aware of how a healthy diet, lifestyle and cultural factors can alter disease risk.
Sources: American Heart Assn. and partners to the Unified Dietary Guidelines.
