Welcome back. In this segment, we're going to continue
to look at some of the key recommendations from the 2010 dietary
guidelines for Americans. Specifically, with foods and food
components that are recommended to be reduced.
Here are just some of the key recommendations.
Sodium, fats, added sugars are basically some of those.
We'll look at those a little bit individually, the recommendations in the
2010 edition for sodium, were one of the more significant changes in the new
dietary guidelines in that. It got a little tighter in terms of what
recommended based on, again what research has come out in previous years before
these were released. And some of the impact in sodium intake
in terms of blood pressure, in terms of health risk of Americans.
It's recommended that all Americans reduce their intake to less than 2300
milligrams per day. Now in terms of actual consumption
patterns, we're consuming well over 3,000, 4,000 milligrams per day, so we
are actually a long way from that recommended intake.
In part, because of our food supply, the dependence on convenience foods, many of
which are very high in sodium, you see manufacturers making an effort to reduce
sodium intake and offering alternative reduced sodium foods.
But you know between restaurant food, between processed, convenience foods and
salt we might add in the cooking or at the table it's very easy to get high.
Almost you know 80, 90 or higher percent of my students.
Go well above the recommended sodium intake.
So, this is an area that's a great challenge, to be able to get down to
recommended intake and also achieve some of the benefits that come with that.
Now, one of the more dramatic changes was that.
It was recommended that many individuals would benefit from even a tighter sodium
restriction. Dropping down to around 1500 milligrams
per day. And this actually when you look at the
group combined, compromises more than half of Americans.
That's all adults over age 51. Which includes me.
all African Americans over age two. and anybody with chronic diseases like
high blood pressure, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease, were also recommended to
drop their sodium intake to that 1500 milligram or below.
So, you know, more than half of us need to drop even further, and part of that is
risk of high blood pressure, and of some of the other issues that excessive sodium
intake may contribute to. so, so this is a tough one, and this is
one that education is you know, trying to help people identify high sodium foods
sources. Find ways to practically reduce sodium
intake. But again this is a challenge area.
But certainly one that a lot of emphasis was put on in the dietary guidelines.
It's one of those areas that you know, we certainly eat more than recommended.
both males and females particularly with males exceeding recommended intake.
It's also interesting when I look at my students, that sodium intake correlates
closely in many ways with calorie intake. The more calories you consume the more
sodium you're consuming, and in part you're just eating more foods and foods
in general, and sometimes foods that contribute a lot of calories.
Some of my female students who were consuming fewer calories and sometime too
few calories, that their sodium intake tends to be lower and again it kind of
tracks along with calorie intake and overall food intake.
Another area that's recommended to be reduced are, our intake of certain types
of fats. fats are a confusing area.
Many people recognize the fact that we need to eat less fat, but they don't
realize that necessarily it's certain types of fat that need more of the
emphasis in terms of reduction. People do recognize in general that there
are types of fat, and that some are better or worse than others.
But in terms of how to implement that, that's again a challenge.
with saturated fats, fats that are highly saturated, they tend to raise your blood
cholesterol. It's recommended that we eat less that
10% of our calories. From saturated fats.
these are thinks like meat fats, high fat dairy foods certain vegetable oils.
Coconut oil, palm oil tend to be highly saturated.
fats that are solid at room temperature tend to be more saturated than ones that
are liquid at room temperature. And if we reduce even further than 10%,
it has an impact on cardiovascular disease risk.
And replacing those saturated fats with healthier fats.
Which would be your monounsaturated fats, your polyunsaturated fats, will help and
go a long way to helping with cholesterol level, heart disease risk and such trans
fats we need to eat as minimal as possible.
you know, that there's not necessarily a specific recommendation in terms of
percentage, but minimal. Trans fats are created when, when liquid
fats are hydrogenated to make them solid they don't occur in any significance
naturally in foods but you're going to find in foods that have hydrogenated
fats. And sometimes you see that on a label.
As of the early 2000s that trans fats were required to be included on food
labels, and with that some manufacturers stepped back, reformulated their
products. Isn't necessarily always a simple thing
because, when you change types of fat, you can change certain qualities of the
food, you can also change shelf life and other issues.
So, it's not always as straightforward as we might think.
And then, under the fat classification, it's also dietary cholesterol.
Reducing that to less than about 300 milligrams per day.
But the most profound effect on your blood cholesterol, is actually not
dietary cholesterol. It's saturated fat and more so even,
trans fat that will raise your blood cholesterol level.
in terms of calories from solid fats, which would be your more saturated fats,
an added sugar is recommended. and to reduce our intake overall, of the
calories that are coming from these foods, or so called SoFAS which is the,
the term that's kind of been coined to apply to solid fats and added sugars..
They should provide, you know, is less than what we're eating.
Right now we're eating about 35% of our calories from these foods and many of
these provide little nutrition, with a lot of calories and so reducing our
intake of these SoFAS to about 5 to 15% of our calories.
Doesn't mean we don't have any, but reducing the amount in proportion to
other maybe more nutrient dense foods is advised.
Reducing intake of refined grains is recommended in lieu of more whole grains.
That at least half of the grain intake, should be from whole grains and not
eating a lot of foods. That have these refined white flours.
many of those foods are also high in sugar and fat.
So, you know, emphasizing more of the wholegrain products and replacing those
for the refined grains is a good strategy in terms of reduction.
The final component in terms of foods to reduce.
Is in terms of alcohol. Moderation is advised and for most
people, for women, it's about, the equivalent of one drink per day.
Which is say 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, an ounce and a half of liquor.
All those are equivalent to about one drink.
But for women moderation is achieved by one drink a day.
For men moderation is considered two drinks a day.
Mainly because of larger body weight and they metabolize alcohol a little
differently. and then there's some specific guidelines
in terms of alcohol consumption for special groups, like not drinking during
pregnancy or breastfeeding. and you know certain circumstances too,
where we should avoid alcohol altogether. It's interesting when we look at some of
the international food guides. Many of those include alcohol.
Moderate alcohol intake and as part of their actual recommendation.
You don't really see that in the US. But moderation is advised.
And many studies show, that moderate intake actually has positive health
benefits. not going above what's considered
moderate, but moderate intake has correlations with reduced heart disease
risk, reduced risk of certain types of cancer.
So, you know, don't start drinking just because, you know, you get some risk, but
if people do choose, adults, choose to drink alcohol, moderation is the level
that's advised. and I'm just provided you here with some
definitions which relate to alcohol consumption, and some of the terms and
moderation aspects of alcohol. Well that was an overview, quick overview
of foods to reduce. You can find more information at the
links, but basically sodium, fat particularly saturated fat, trans fat and
keeping cholesterol intake at a, at a moderate level.
And then added sugars are a part of the emphasis and then moderation in terms of
alcohol. In the next segment we'll cover
highlights of foods and nutrients that are recommended to increase.