What You Need to Know About the 2015 Dietary Guidelines

01/07/2016

The long-awaited 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans have been released! We chatted with Best Food Facts registered dietitian Sarah Downs to find out more.

The Five Key Take-Aways from the Guidelines:

1. Follow a healthy eating pattern across the lifespan
2. Focus on variety, nutrient density, and amount
3. Limit calories from added sugars and saturated fats and reduce sodium intake
4. Shift to healthier food and beverage choices
5. Support healthy eating patterns for all

That may sound easy enough, but who came up with these guidelines and how can you use these recommendations to guide your health?

What are the Dietary Guidelines?

Sarah Downs: “The federal government has been publishing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA’s) every five years since 1980. With a goal of providing recommendations about components of a healthy and nutritionally-sound diet to help promote health and prevent chronic disease, each edition of the guidelines reflects the body of nutrition science. The Guidelines provide evidence-based food and beverage recommendations for Americans ages 2 and older.”

Who develops the guidelines?

Sarah Downs: “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) develop the guidelines. Revisions to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines were created and updated by using information from the Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (essentially a draft of of the guidelines) with additional consideration from Federal agency input and public comments.”

How are they used?

Sarah Downs: “They are the cornerstone of nutrition guidance and are crucial in shaping programs and federal policies related to food, nutrition and health. This includes Women, Infants and Children (WIC), the National School Lunch Program and the Older Americans Act Nutrition Programs, to name a few. They’re also used by various industries and organizations when developing their food and beverage products.

The 2015 DGA’s are intended to be used for disease prevention and focus on overall health rather than treatment of disease. However, it is important to note that regardless of one’s health status, the guidelines can benefit nearly all people in the U.S. if used to support healthy eating patterns.”

What’s different?

Sarah Downs: “Many pieces of the guidelines remain unchanged from 2010 including a focus on increasing the consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains and decreasing salt intake. However, there are a few updates to note.

1. On signification change in the 2015 guidelines is the recommendation to limit sugar to no more than 10 percent of daily calories. Currently, many Americans consume up to 22 teaspoons per day, which is nearly double the 10 percent that is recommended (based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet).
2. Recommendations on dietary cholesterol are another important change to the guidelines. The updated guidelines place no daily limit on dietary cholesterol. This comes from lack of strong evidence that shows limiting cholesterol-rich foods lowers the amount of LDL cholesterol (a contributor to heart disease) that ends up in the blood.
3. The recommendations also encourage the increased consumption of different types of protein foods including nuts, seeds and seafood.”
   

So what should my diet look like?

Sarah Downs: “It’s important to note that the eating patterns recommended by the DGA’s focus on the big picture but can be tailored to individual preferences.

These healthy patterns include:

• Fruits and vegetables – a variety of different types of fruits and vegetables
• Grains – half of grains should be whole grains
• Dairy – fat-free or low-fat dairy products and/or fortified soy beverages
• Protein – a variety of protein foods including seafood, lean meats and poultry, eggs, legumes, nuts, seeds and soy products
• Oils – here’s a link to a Best Food Facts post that breaks down the different types of oils.

Things to Limit

• Saturated fats less than 10 percent of calories per day
• Added sugars to less than 10 percent of calories per day
• Sodium to less than 2,300 milligrams per day”

Bottom Line:

Reference: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2015 – 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 8^th Edition. December 2015. Available at http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/.

_{The image “d2536-1” by U.S. Department of Agriculture is licensed under CC BY 2.0.}

• tags:
• dietary guidelines,
• regulatory,
• dga