Federal Diet Guidelines to Now Include Exercise Advice

Americans, growing ever fatter, should work up a sweat for at least 30 minutes almost every day, the federal government will advise today. The Agriculture Department guidelines, which previously have focused on food, are being expanded for the first time to include exercise.

Eating less is not enough to help burn off excess calories from the average high-fat, high-sugar American diet, experts believe.

In addition, Americans should eat more fruits and vegetables, according to the guidelines which are revised every five years.

The government will also propose a nutrition label for packages of meat and poultry, giving information on calories, fat and cholesterol content. The same information is now contained on labels for processed foods.

The announcement of the new dietary guidelines is designed to highlight the first national nutrition summit in a generation, scheduled to take place in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday. The summit comes at a time when obesity is increasing throughout the population, with a third of all Americans overweight by 20 pounds or more.

Exercise was mentioned briefly in previous versions of the guidelines, but now it will be singled out for special attention. A brisk walk is sufficient. It is not necessary to join a gym or participate in a strenuous aerobics class, according to the guidelines.

But the exercise should be regular, a total of 30 minutes a day, five days a week. This could mean a 10-minute walk at lunchtime, for example, and, for parents, 20 minutes of playing in the yard with children after dinner.

“We want to encourage physical activity. It’s very critically important,” Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said in a briefing with reporters.

The dietary guidelines form the “gold standard when it comes to applying scientific research to what people should be eating,” Glickman said.

Another new addition to the guidelines will be a combination of advice and warnings to consumers on the risk of disease from bacterial contamination. There will be special emphasis on preparing and storing food to avoid the dangers of diseases in perishables such as eggs, meat, poultry, fish, shellfish and milk products.

The guidelines suggest that Americans should:

* Choose and prepare foods with less salt. Almost 80% of the population gets more salt than needed.

* Select beverages and foods to “moderate the intake of sugar.” An advisory committee had recommended language calling on people to “limit” the intake of sugar but this idea was rejected after strong protests and lobbying by the food industry. The use of the stronger or more specific wording “could not be supported scientifically,” said Glickman.

* Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables daily.

Because Americans are becoming more sedentary, getting less physical exertion both at work and at home, exercise is now considered vital to help burn off the heavy load of calories in the typical diet. Regular exercise also reduces the risk of developing such illnesses as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and diabetes.

But only 40% of adults meet the standard of exercising for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, according to statistics distributed by the White House. At the other extreme, about 25% of the population is completely sedentary--getting no exercise.

About 10% of children are overweight, a figure that has doubled since 1985. The increase is apparently attributable to lack of exercise. Children are eating about the same number of calories as kids 15 or 20 years ago but far fewer of them are exercising, because many schools have dropped mandatory physical education classes.

Only 26% of people meet the daily requirements for dairy products and less than 20% eat the recommended amount of fruit, according to government figures. Teenagers, who often substitute soda for milk and orange juice, are especially likely to have poor diets.

Children should get 60 minutes of exercise a day, compared with 30 minutes a day for adults, the guidelines recommend. Even very young children are beginning to have weight problems.

About 10% of children 4 and 5 years old were overweight in government research studies conducted from 1988 to 1994. The figure had almost doubled from a level of 5.8% from 1971 to 1974.

A child who is overweight by age 10 has a 70% chance of having a serious weight problem as an adult.