The New Dietary Dos And Don'ts
Every five years the federal government issues new dietary guidelines that are supposed to put the country on the road to healthier eating. Apparently Americans have been taking some wrong turns because two thirds of us are now overweight and nearly a third are obese (a body mass index of 30 or greater). Weight management. Prevention is the best policy. Many of us could avoid weight gain in the first place by shaving 50–100 calories from our diets. The guidelines note that although the 2,000-calorie-a-day diet remains the reference diet, it’s not the recommended one. Many Americans should be eating far fewer calories than that. They say the best way to cut calories is to reduce the so-called discretionary ones that come from added sugars (in soft drinks and candy, for example), added fats, and alcohol.Physical activity. Why do dietary guidelines include recommendations about physical activity? Because regular physical activity, as much as anything we eat, is essential to maintaining a healthy body weight.Past guidelines have said that 30 minutes of exercise a day will reduce chronic disease risk and have other health benefits. The new ones say that most of us need an additional 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity to avoid gaining weight.An hour of exercise a day — that sets the bar pretty high. But you don’t have to work out in a gym: Examples of moderate-level physical activity include gardening, dancing, and walking at a 3 1/2-mile-per-hour pace. And short, 10-minute bouts of activity have benefits similar to longer stretches so long as you reach the same daily total. So give yourself credit for the brisk walk from where you parked your car and similar activities.Dietary fat. Most of the fat you eat should be the "good" polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats found in fish, nuts, and vegetable oils (corn, olive, soybean, etc.). Less than 10% of your daily calories should come from saturated fat, found primarily in meat and dairy products.For the first time, the guidelines take a strong

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