The federal government has issued its new guide to healthy diet recommendations for the whole family, including, for the first time, some feeding guidelines for babies and pregnant women.
The amount of sugar and alcohol that adults should consume to avoid health problems has remained the same as in the previous guidelines, but
children have new restrictions
.
Children under 2 years old should not consume added sugars as well as foods high in sodium and honey, among others.
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Every five years, the departments of Agriculture and Health publish a healthy eating guide, which
has a big impact
: it shapes the content of school lunches and the health programs of state and local governments.
In addition, the guide influences the production of food companies.
Starting this year, the federal government should include some guidelines for the little ones in its guide to a healthy diet.
Getty Images / iStockphoto
People should follow "a healthy dietary pattern," the 2020-2025 guide states.
For this, you should eat vegetables of all kinds, grains, meats and low-fat dairy products, as well as seafood, vegetable oils and nuts.
They also recommend limiting added sugars and saturated fats, which are
less than 10%
of total calories in the diet, as well as reducing the consumption of foods with sodium and alcoholic beverages.
For men,
two alcoholic drinks a day
are recommended
and for women, only one.
Pregnant women should not consume alcohol at all.
The recommendations seek to improve the diet of citizens, which impacts weight problems and chronic diseases.
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More than 70% of adults
age 20 and older are overweight or obese, according to 2015-2016 figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
About 42% of the population is obese, according to data from 2017-2018.
From birth to 2 years
The federal government's feeding guidelines always only applied to those over 2 years of age, but Congress established in a law in 2014 that the guidelines must include babies and pregnant women.
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Experts say that since food preferences develop from an early age,
you should avoid giving babies foods and drinks with added sugars
and limit those high in sodium like salty snacks.
Low-calorie or no-calorie sweeteners are also not recommended.
Added sugars are those found in processed foods, from sodas to breakfast cereals, as well as in honey and sugar.
These are not the ones that are naturally in foods like fruit and milk.
Honey is not recommended
because it contains a component that can cause serious illness or death in children.
Unpasteurized foods, whether juices or dairy, can also have bacteria and are risky.
Good news for the food industries
To make the 2020-2025 guide, authorities reviewed a series of guidelines published in July by a committee of 20 academics and scientists.
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Experts had indicated that the current limit for added sugars in the diet should be lowered from 10% to 6% due to the increase in obesity rates in the country and the link between being overweight and health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
The committee also recommended lowering the alcoholic beverage limit for men to one drink per day instead of two, as recommended for women.
The reason, according to experts, is that studies link higher alcohol consumption with an increased risk of death.
The federal government did not take any of these recommendations
and kept the current limits.
"The new [scientific] evidence is not substantial enough to support changes in the quantitative recommendations for added sugars or alcohol," justified Brandon Lipps, deputy secretary of the Department of Agriculture, indicates a report in The Wall Street Journal.
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Food industry
groups
had rejected
the limits proposed by the committee of scientists and lobbied for them not to be taken into account.
When asked about the impact of this pressure, Lipps indicated that the Government received more than 106,000 comments from the public.
“We are committed to issuing guidelines based on accurate scientific data, in an open and transparent process.
And we believe that at the end of the day, that's what we did, ”he said.
How to eat a healthy diet
The Department of Agriculture also launched a new website, MyPlate.gov, with a questionnaire in which people can see if their eating habits meet dietary guidelines.
The page also has tools for personalized recommendations, healthy meal recipes, and tips for eating on a budget.
The information is in English but there are some resources in Spanish.
With information from The Wall Street Journal.