By Joy Pierce Mathews for Summit Medical Group
Reviewed by Susan D. Canonico, RD
 

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released practical guidelines to help Americans adopt a healthier diet and combat obesity. Highlights from Chapter 5 of the guidelines, "Building Healthy Eating Patterns," include information about balancing calories to manage weight, foods and food components to reduce weight, foods and nutrients to increase weight, and advice on healthy eating patterns. They also include useful terms, statistics on weight- and nutrition-related disease, and factors that influence food choices.

Chapter 5 emphasizes a healthy eating pattern as "an array of options that can accommodate cultural, ethnic, traditional, and personal preferences, food costs, and availability."

Key recommendations from chapter 5 of the guidelines are:

• Choose a pattern of eating that meets your nutrient and calorie needs over time
• Account for all foods and beverages you eat
• Evaluate how and whether the foods and beverages you eat fit within an overall healthy eating plan
• Follow food safety recommendations for preparing food

The guidelines suggest common threads in healthy eating plans around the world, including:

• An abundance of vegetables, fruits, and grains
• Moderate amounts of high-protein foods such as seafood, beans and peas, nuts, seeds, soy, meat, poultry, and eggs
• Few foods high in sugar
• More oils rather than solid fats
• Small amounts of full-fat milk and mild products
• Plenty of low-fat milk and milk products
• Little sodium

Research shows that healthy non-American diets have more unsaturated than saturated fatty acids and a higher fiber and potassium content. In addition, some data show that countries with healthy diets include moderate amounts of wine with meals.

Recommendations of the guidelines for "Building Healthy Eating Patterns" are:

• Limit your calories to an amount that will help you achieve or maintain a healthy weight
• Consume enough calories to encourage appropriate growth if you are a child or adolescent
• Eat recommended amounts of nutrient-rich foods from all food groups
• Reduce solid fats
• Replace solid fats with oils
• Reduce and limit all sugars
• Reduce refined grains and replace some of them with whole grains
• Reduce sodium
• Limit alcohol (1 drink per day or less for women, 2 drinks or less per day for men)
• Increase vegetables and fruits
• Increase whole grains
• Increase fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products and reduce full-fat milk or milk products
• Replace some meat and poultry with fish

 In addition, the guidelines recommend using these general approaches for a healthier overall approach to eating:

• Enjoy your food, but eat less
• Avoid large portions
• Fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables
• Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk
• Compare sodium in soup, bread, and frozen foods and select those with lower sodium
• Drink water instead of drinks containing sugar

Click here for a healthy ratatouille recipe that includes many of the recommendations listed above.

Click here to see the USDA Choose My Plate site,
where you can look up a food, learn about food groups, get a personalized plan,
get healthy eating tips, get weight loss information, plan a healthy menu,
analyze your diet, and ask questions. 

For more information or to schedule an appointment with Summit Medical Group Nutrition Services,
call us today at 908-277-8731.