New Dietary Advice Is From the Heart
B O S T O N, Oct. 5 -- Americans need to lose weight but should veer away from the popular yet controversial high-protein diets, according to the American Heart Association’s new nutritional guidelines.
The association says Americans in their battle against the bulge should not focus so much on proteins, such as meat and fish, but should get their nutrients and calories from all food groups, including vegetables and fruit.
The group also suggests people should exercise to lose weight and eat less fat.
They new guidelines, which are based on an analysis of hundreds of recent scientific studies, serves as a model for dietary recommendations by other groups such as the American Dietetic Association. They were announced today in New York City by the Dallas, Texas-based organization.
Obesity Epidemic The association made fighting weight gain a priority this year because Americans’ expanding waistlines have now reached crisis level.
“The data shows a 1 percent increase in obesity per year in the United States since the early ’90s,” says Penny Kris-Etherton, a professor of nutrition at Penn State University in University Park, Penn., who helped develop the guidelines. “This portends terrible things in the future in terms of heart disease, and other diseases as well.”
A diverse diet is key to nutritional health, the guidelines say. People should eat five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, and six or more servings of grains and beans. Meats should be lean and dairy products should be low-fat or fat-free.
Besides recommending a mixed diet, the association says people should monitor their calories and engage in physical exercise to lose weight. The organization suggests walking 30 minutes a day, participating in moderate exercise almost every day or cutting down on watching television to help burn calories.
Calculations Too Complex But Americans can now throw away their calculators when figuring out how much fat to eat, the association says. Previously, the AHA recommended healthy adults eat less 30 percent of their total calories as fat and to keep saturated fats under 10 percent of total calories to keep their cholesterol levels down. Now, the group simply advises adults “minimize” foods high in saturated fat, such as meats, butter, whole milk, cheese and coconut and palm oils.
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