Description of Dietary Guidelines for Americans-Health
- By:Robert Baird Baird
In response to criticism of the american diet, the US department of Agriculture (USDA) and department of health and human services (DHHS) established the following recommendations that are the basis for the dietary guidelines for Americans
Eat a Variety of Foods
The best way to plan a nutritionally balanced diet is to eat a variety of foods according to the food guide pyramid . This helps to ensure that the recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) of essential nutrients-substances that cannot be made by the body and must be supplied through the diet are provided. Rdas represent sufficient amounts of the more than 50 essential nutrients necessary to meet the needs of nearly all healthy people in the population . The food guide pyramid is helpful for determining how many servings from each food group should be included in your diet.
The foundations of good nutrition are variety and moderation. No one food or food group provides all essential nutrients in adequate amounts. Furthermore, you should consume a variety of foods within each food group. Potatoes are a good example of how foods within a group vary in nutrients and calories: ounces of baked potato yield 98 calories, whereas 3 ounces of potato chips yield 470 calories. Similar examples within food groups include skim milk and ice cream, beans and bologna, olive oil and butter, and whole-wheat bread and doughnuts.
Balance Food Intake With Physical Activity: Maintain or Improve Weight
The achievement and maintenance of a desirable body weight or composition are complex issues and are treated separately in this text. For a complete discussion of principles for maintaining desirable composition by balancing food intake with physical activity.
Choose a Diet Low In Fat, Saturated Fat, and Cholesterol
Perhaps the greatest shortcoming of the american diet is the abundance of fat. The dietary guidelines call for no more than 30% of total daily calories in the form of fat, of which no more than 10% comes from saturated fat. A good percentage ratio is 10: 10: 10 for saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fat.
Choose a Diet With Plenty of Grain Products, Vegetables, and Fruits
Starch and fiber belong to the carbohydrate family of nutrients. Carbohydrates are the primary energy source for the brain and nervous system, and they are necessary for burning of fat at rest and during physical activity in other tissues. Dietary guidelines recommend that complex carbohydrates make up at least 45% of the diet. A 2000 calorie diet that meets the DRV of 300 grams achieves the even higher level of 60% of calories from carbohydrates.
Americans seem to be getting a message that carbohydrate intake needs to be increased. Ten year comparisons show that consumption of fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, and canned vegetables are in a long-term upward trend. During the past 20 years, consumption of fresh fruit has increased from 91 pounds per person per year to 120 pounds; fresh vegetables (excluding potatoes) increased from 80 to 103 pounds; and canned vegetables increased from 97 to 111 pounds. Potato consumption has also increased from 68 to 77 pounds; the downside of this trend is that one third of potatoes end up frozen that means high fat french fries.
Carbohydrates supply energy in the form of sugar, or saccharides. The simplest form of carbohydrate is the monosaccharide, which includes glucose and fructose (fruit sugar). Fructose is the sweetest of simple sugars. Disaccharides are double sugars, meaning that they are pairs of monosaccharides chemically linked. Included in this group of sugars are sucrose, or table sugar; lactose, or milk sugar; and maltose, or malt sugar. The last group of sugars is the polysaccharides, which are composed of many single monosaccharides. Polysaccharides are also called complex carbohydrates. They include starch and several forms of fiber.
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Author writes about health care information. He also writes about bodybuilding exercises and fitness and nutrition.