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Redefining a Healthy Diet
Excerpt
By Ed Edelson, HealthScoutNews
(HealthScoutNews)
-- A few simple changes to the federal government's "Dietary
Guidelines for Americans" could further reduce the risk of
major chronic diseases, Harvard University researchers say.
The trouble with the guidelines
is that they don't make a distinction between different types
of fat or protein; they lump red meat, chicken and nuts together
as sources of protein; and they place too much emphasis on carbohydrates,
the researchers say.
A 15-year study showed that men
who ate white meat instead of red, unsaturated rather than saturated
fat, and whole grains rather than refined grains lowered their
risk of major chronic diseases by 20 percent. The reduction for
women was 11 percent, says a report by the researchers in the
new issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Marjorie McCullough, a nutritional
epidemiologist who was part of the Harvard University School of
Public Health team that looked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture
dietary guidelines with a critical eye, says the recommended changes
were prompted by a closer look at specific parts of the guidelines.
For example, the USDA guidelines
emphasize lowering intake of all sorts of fats.
"We agree with that in general,
but we look at a higher ratio of polyunsaturated fat to saturated
fat," says McCullough, who now is a nutritional epidemiologist
with the American Cancer Society. That means consuming more liquid
vegetable oil and fish oil, she says. The Harvard guidelines --
dubbed the Alternative Healthy Eating Index -- also recommend
lower intake of total trans fats, which come from margarine and
vegetable shortening.
Potatoes are out because people
generally consume them in the form of French fries. Baked potatoes
are OK, McCullough says, but "they don't have the same benefit
of risk reduction as other vegetables do, such as broccoli."
Four servings of fruit daily, 15
grams a day of cereal fiber, one serving a day of nuts and soy
protein, moderate alcohol consumption -- one or two drinks a day
-- and multivitamin supplements are also recommended.
These recommendations are not based
on any abstract laboratory study. Instead, the Harvard team had
more than 150,000 men and women enrolled in the "Health Professionals
Follow-Up Study" and the "Nurses Health Study"
give detailed lists of what they were eating, and then looked
at the diseases they got over a 15-year period.
The men whose diet most closely
followed the Harvard recommendations cut their risk of cardiovascular
disease by 39 percent, compared to those whose diets strayed farthest
from the guidelines. For women, the reduction was 28 percent.
By comparison, the reduction for those who followed the federal
dietary guidelines was 11 percent for men and 3 percent for women.
No reduction of cancer risk was found for either set of guidelines.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture
spokesperson says the federal dietary guidelines are coming up
for review and possible revision. The review will be done in collaboration
with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A notice
requesting nominations for a committee to do the review will be
placed in the Federal Register, possibly as early as next month,
according to the spokesperson.
What To Do
The current federal dietary guidelines
are available from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. The National
Cancer Institute offers a program to help you eat five servings
of fruits and vegetables a day.
Reference
Source 101
For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick
Prevention Resources".
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