Tag: diet

2015 Dietary Guidelines

Dietary Guidelines

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans encourages individuals to eat a healthful diet — one that focuses on foods and beverages that help achieve and maintain a healthy weight, promote health, and prevent chronic disease. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) jointly publish the Dietary Guidelines every 5 years. Learn more:

The 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (Committee) submitted the Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (Advisory Report) to the Secretaries of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in February 2015. The purpose of the Advisory Report is to inform the Federal government of current scientific evidence on topics related to diet, nutrition, and health. It provides the Federal government with a foundation for developing national nutrition policy. However, the Advisory Report is not the Dietary Guidelines for Americans policy or a draft of the policy. The Federal government will determine how it will use the information in the Advisory Report as the government develops the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. HHS and USDA will jointly release the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2015 later this year.

Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee

Each section of the Advisory Report below links to text for that section. A printable PDF is also provided. The PDF provides page and line numbers that the public can use when submitting written comments.

Download PDF – 11.3MB

Letter to the Secretaries – [Download as a PDF – 422KB]

Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Membership – [Download as a PDF – 114KB]

Part A: Executive Summary – [Download as a PDF – 283KB]

Part B: Setting the Stage and Integrating the Evidence

Part C: Methodology – [Download as a PDF – 143KB]

Part D: Science Base

lifestyle choices

Diet for a low-carbon planet

Most of the proposed solutions to climate change such as substitution of fossil fuels require large investments, policies that are politically contentious or difficult to enforce, and years to fully implement. However, some of the most effective and lowest cost opportunities for greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions are lifestyle choices that can be made today that cost little, and that are actually good for us. Chief among them is the decision to adopt a healthier, less meat intensive diet.

The significance of this opportunity was emphasized in a recent presentation at the World Bank by Jonathan Foley, director of the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment. According to analysis by the Institute, every pound of meat is equivalent to about 30 pounds of grain production in its contribution to climate change when allowance is made for the full life cycle of livestock production. This is primarily because methane emissions from ruminants have a GHG impact roughly 25 times that of carbon dioxide.

Another expression of the resource intensity of meat production, Foley explained, is that even highly efficient agricultural systems like that in the US only deliver about the same calories per hectare in human consumption terms as poor African countries with more grain based diets. The surprisingly large role of livestock in global warming was explored in a 2009 article by Robert Goodland, formerly a World Bank economist, and Jeff Anhang, an IFC environmental specialist. They estimate that when land use and respiration are taken into account and methane effects are properly calculated, livestock could account for half of current warming when using a 20 year time-frame. According to Goodland and Anhang, replacing 25% of livestock products with alternatives would liberate as much as 40% of current world grain production with comparable benefits in reduced burdens on land, water, and other resources.

The paleo diet

Published on Feb 12, 2013
TED Fellow Christina Warinner is an expert on ancient diets. So how much of the diet phad the “Paleo Diet” is based on an actual Paleolithic diet? The answer is not really any of it.

Dr. Christina Warinner has excavated around the world, from the Maya jungles of Belize to the Himalayan mountains of Nepal, and she is pioneering the biomolecular investigation of archaeological dental calculus (tartar) to study long-term trends in human health and diet. She is a 2012 TED Fellow, and her work has been featured in Wired UK, the Observer, CNN.com, Der Freitag, and Sveriges TV. She obtained her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2010, specializing in ancient DNA analysis and paleodietary reconstruction.

“Off the Mark” by Mark J. Smith, Ph.D. – May 12, 2013

The paleo diet is based on emulating the diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. It includes whole, unprocessed foods that resemble what they look like in nature.

Our ancestors were genetically the same as modern humans. They thrived eating such foods and were free of diseases like obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Several studies suggest that this diet can lead to significant weight loss (without calorie counting) and major improvements in health.

There is no one “right” way to eat for everyone and paleolithic humans thrived on a variety of diets, depending on what was available at the time.

Some ate a low-carb diet high in animal foods, others a high-carb diet with lots of plants.

Eat: Meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, healthy fats and oils.

Avoid: Processed foods, sugar, soft drinks, grains, most dairy products, legumes, artificial sweeteners, vegetable oils, margarine and trans fats.

In the year 2013, the paleo diet was the world’s most popular diet.

However, it is still very controversial among health professionals and mainstream nutrition organizations.

Some have embraced the diet as healthy and reasonable, while others think it is downright harmful.

1. Lindeberg S, et al. A Palaeolithic diet improves glucose tolerance more than a Mediterranean-like diet in individuals with ischaemic heart disease. Diabetologia, 2007.

Details: 29 men with heart disease and elevated blood sugars or type 2 diabetes, were randomized to either a paleolithic diet (n=14) or a Mediterranean-like diet (n=15). Neither group was calorie restricted.

The main outcomes measured were glucose tolerance, insulin levels, weight and waist circumference. This study went on for 12 weeks.

Glucose Tolerance: The glucose tolerance test measures how quickly glucose is cleared from the blood. It is a marker for insulin resistance and diabetes.

This graph shows the difference between groups. The solid dots are the baseline, the open dots are after 12 weeks on the diet. Paleo group is on the left, control group on the right.

Lindeberg, et al. 2007.

As you can clearly see from the graphs, only the paleo diet group saw a significant improvement in glucose tolerance.

Weight Loss: Both groups lost a significant amount of weight, 5 kg (11 lbs) in the paleo group and 3.8 kg (8.4 lbs) in the control group. However, the difference was not statistically significant between groups.

The paleo diet group had a 5.6 cm (2.2 inches) reduction in waist circumference, compared to 2.9 cm (1.1 inches) in the control group. The difference was statistically significant.

A few important points:

    • The 2-hour Area Under the Curve (AUC) for blood glucose went down by 36% in the paleo group, compared to 7% in the control group.
    • Every patient in the paleo group ended up having normal blood sugars, compared to 7 of 15 patients in the control group.
  • The paleo group ended up eating 451 fewer calories per day (1344 compared to 1795) without intentionally restricting calories or portions.

Conclusion: A paleolithic diet lead to greater improvements in waist circumference and glycemic control, compared to a Mediterranean-like diet.

TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2011

Farewell To “Paleo”

I have experimented with eating a so-called “paleo” diet for at least 14 years.  Although I had confidence enough in the concept to invest in self-publishing a book on putting it into practice, over this time I have endured increasing cognitive dissonance because the currently popular concept of paleo diet—animal-based, relatively high in protein and fat and relatively low in carbohydrate—conflicts with empirical nutrition knowledge accumulated over the course of 5 thousand years in both Asian and Western medicine, including a rather large body of clinical and laboratory data accumulated since the 19thcentury, all pointing toward humans being more adapted to a plant-dominated, high-carbohydrate diet supplying significantly less than 30% of energy from fat.

 

UCS dietary recommendations

the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) shows that finding innovative ways to help Americans increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables would greatly benefit our health and our national economy.

More than 127,000 deaths per year from cardiovascular diseases could be prevented, and $17 billion in annual national medical costs could be saved, if Americans increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables
to meet dietary recommendations.

Sustainable Diets

Understanding Sustainable Diets: A Descriptive Analysis of the Determinants and Processes That Influence Diets and Their Impact on Health, Food Security, and Environmental Sustainability1,2,3

  1. Jessica L. Johnston4,*,
  2. Jessica C. Fanzo5, and
  3. Bruce Cogill6

The confluence of population, economic development, and environmental pressures resulting from increased globalization and industrialization reveal an increasingly resource-constrained world in which predictions point to the need to do more with less and in a “better” way. The concept of sustainable diets presents an opportunity to successfully advance commitments to sustainable development and the elimination of poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, and poor health outcomes. This study examines the determinants of sustainable diets, offers a descriptive analysis of these areas, and presents a causal model and framework from which to build. The major determinants of sustainable diets fall into 5 categories: 1) agriculture, 2) health, 3) sociocultural, 4) environmental, and 5) socioeconomic. When factors or processes are changed in 1 determinant category, such changes affect other determinant categories and, in turn, the level of “sustainability” of a diet. The complex web of determinants of sustainable diets makes it challenging for policymakers to understand the benefits and considerations for promoting, processing, and consuming such diets. To advance this work, better measurements and indicators must be developed to assess the impact of the various determinants on the sustainability of a diet and the tradeoffs associated with any recommendations aimed at increasing the sustainability of our food system.

The Chicago Council8 found in its study, Bringing Agriculture to the Table, that diet-related noncommunicable diseases are on track to rise by 15% by 2020 if current trends in the global commercialization of processed foods continue to be overconsumed by an increasingly less active global population (1). Currently, the global food system is estimated to contribute to 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs). With the global population expected to rise to 9 billion or more people by 2050, the Foresight Project9 found that rising demand to transport, store, and consume the most resource-intensive food types (namely dairy and meat) in developing economies will further increase the contributions of food and agriculture to environmental degradation and climate change (4). At the same time, the Livewell Project10 found that UK diets could in fact be rebalanced in line with the government’s dietary guidelines (the Eatwell Plate) to achieve GHGE targets for 2020 by substantially reducing meat and dairy consumption (19). However, looking to GHGE targets for 2050, researchers noted that changes would be needed in both food production and consumption to reach these longer-term targets (7). Recent analysis of the new Nordic Diet found that improvements in GHGEs and other environmental wins could be achieved by improving production, reducing transportation, and changing food types (20). Similar recommendations followed an analysis of dietary shifts in France (21).

prevent type 2 diabetes

To help prevent type 2 diabetes and its
complications, people should:
• Achieve and maintain healthy body weight.
• Be physically active – at least 30 minutes of
regular, moderate-intensity activity on most
days.
• Early diagnosis can be accomplished through
relatively inexpensive blood testing.
• Treatment of diabetes involves lowering blood
sugar and the levels of other known risk
factors that damage blood vessels.
• Tobacco cessation is also important to avoid
complications.

Diabetes is not a disease; it is a reaction of the body to survive

A body does not want to die. Nobody just likes to die, to give up, and kick the bucket. Physical discomfort is another story.

Diseases, or, that what we describe as disease are always the result of ‘something’. Colds can be sustained by coldness and rain. A broken leg can be caused by a fall. If you do not eat, you feel hungry.
You get appetite due to an empty stomach. If we eat food, the feeling will disappear. Then food was the right solution. This is not a disease, but a question of too little food.

Diabetes, a word often heard today, and it is used often, as it comes in handy. Was diabetes in earlier times also a term en vogue? Even small children are confronted with this diagnose; is this normal?
Diabetes and obesity often go together.

Our bodies however have to accept anything we eat. We use, for example, unhealthy spreads on our sandwich; spreads, only ‘one molecule different from plastic’.

If you have cirrhosis

It is vitally important that patients with liver disease maintain a balanced diet, one which ensures adequate calories, carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Such a diet will aid the liver in the regeneration of liver cells. Nutrition that supports this regeneration is a means of treatment of some liver disorders.

Patients with cirrhosis, for example, who are malnourished, require a diet rich in protein and providing 2,000 – 3,000 calories per day to help the liver re-build itself. However, some cirrhotic patients have protein intolerance. Too much protein will result in an increased amount of ammonia in the blood, while too little protein can reduce healing of the liver. Doctors must carefully prescribe a specific amount of protein that will not elevate the blood ammonia. Lactulose and neomycin are two drugs that help keep the ammonia down.

It is believed that the risk of gallbladder disorders can be reduced by avoiding high fat and cholesterol foods and preventing obesity. The gallbladder is a storage sac for the bile produced by the liver. During digestion, the gallbladder releases bile into the small intestine through the common bile duct. Most gallbladder problems are caused by gallstones and 80-90% of all gallstones are produced from excessive cholesterol which crystallizes and forms stones. By maintaining a well-balanced diet and avoiding high cholesterol intake, the incidence of gallstone formation may be lowered.

If you have cirrhosis, be careful to limit additional liver damage:

  • Don’t drink alcohol. Whether your cirrhosis was caused by chronic alcohol use or another disease, avoid alcohol. Drinking alcohol may cause further liver damage.
  • Eat a low-sodium diet. Excess salt can cause your body to retain fluids, worsening swelling in your abdomen and legs. Use herbs for seasoning your food, rather than salt. Choose prepared foods that are low in sodium.
  • Eat a healthy diet. People with cirrhosis can experience malnutrition. Combat this with a healthy plant-based diet that includes a variety of fruits and vegetables. Choose lean protein, such as legumes, poultry or fish. Avoid raw seafood.
  • Avoid infections. Cirrhosis make sit more difficult for you to fight off infections. Protect yourself by avoiding people who are sick and washing your hands frequently. Get vaccinated for hepatitis A and B, influenza, and pneumonia.
  • Use over-the-counter medications carefully. Cirrhosis makes it more difficult for your liver to process drugs. For this reason, ask your doctor before taking any medications, including nonprescription drugs. Avoid drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB). If you have liver damage, your doctor may recommend you avoid acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) or take it in low doses for pain relief.

People with cirrhosis may need more extra calories and protein. They may lose their appetite and experience nausea, vomiting, and severe weight loss. This can lead to shortage of the minerals calcium and magnesium (signs include muscle cramps, fatigue, weakness, nausea, and vomiting), or a shortage of zinc (signs include reduced ability to taste, changes in taste).

It can help to eat small, frequent meals (4 to 7 times a day), including an evening snack.

When the scarring from cirrhosis prevents blood from passing through the liver, pressure increases in the veins entering the liver. This is called portal hypertension. The body is forced to reroute the blood away from the liver and into the general blood circulation. This causes large blood vessels, called “varices,” to form.

Because the rerouted blood bypasses the liver, it contains high levels of amino acids, ammonia, and toxins that normally would have been handled by the liver. When these substances reach the brain, they can cause confusion and temporary loss of memory (a condition called “hepatic encephalopathy”).

Amino acids and ammonia come from protein in the diet. Some evidence shows that patients with cirrhosis do better when they get their protein from vegetables (such as beans, lentils, and tofu) and from dairy products (eggs, milk, yogurt) instead of from meats.

General recommendations for patients with severe liver disease include:

  • Eat large amounts of carbohydrate foods. Carbohydrates should be the major source of calories in this diet.
  • Eat a moderate intake of fat, as prescribed by the health care provider. The increased carbohydrates and fat help prevent protein breakdown in the liver.
  • Have about 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight. This means that a 154-pound (70-kilogram) man should eat 70 grams of protein per day. This does not include the protein from starchy foods and vegetables. A person with a badly damaged liver may need to eat less protein. Talk to your doctor about your protein needs.
  • Take vitamin supplements, especially B-complex vitamins.
  • Reduce the amount of salt you consume (typically less than 1500 milligrams per day) if you are retaining fluid.

phytoestrogens

November 15, 2010

Kenneth Setchell

The importance of estrogens in homeostatic regulation of many cellular and biochemical events is well illustrated by the pathophysiologic changes that occur with estrogen deficiency. Many of the major diseases of Western populations are hormone dependent and epidemiologic data have shown a strong association between their incidence and diet. In particular, the importance of a plant-based diet is evident from the current dietary recommendations that emphasize an increase in the proportion and amount of fruit and vegetables that should be consumed. Although interpretation of the role of individual components of the diet is difficult from epidemiologic and dietary studies, it is recognized that there are many plant-derived bioactive nonnutrients that can confer significant health benefits. Among these phytochemicals is the broad class of nonsteroidal estrogens called phytoestrogens, and in the past decade there has been considerable interest in the role of isoflavones because of their relatively high concentrations in soy protein. The isoflavones in modest amounts of ingested soy protein are biotransformed by intestinal microflora, are absorbed, undergo enterohepatic recycling, and reach circulating concentrations
that exceed by several orders of magnitude the amounts of endogenous estrogens. These phytoestrogens and their
metabolites have many potent hormonal and nonhormonal activities that may explain some of the biological effects of diets rich in phytoestrogens

The Fast Metabolism Diet

Haylie Pomroy has helped countless clients lose up to 20 pounds in just 4 weeks –all through the fat-burning power of food. Hailed as “the metabolism whisperer,” Haylie reminds us that food is not the enemy, it’s the rehab needed to rev-up your sluggish, broken-down metabolism and turn your body into a fat-burning furnace.

On this plan you’re going to eat a lot. You’re going to eat three full meals and at least two snacks a day – and you’re still going to lose weight. What you’re not going to do is count a single calorie or fat gram. You’re going not to ban entire food groups. You’re not going to go carb-free or vegan or go cold turkey on the foods you love. Instead, you’re going to rotate what you’re eating throughout each week according to a simple and proven plan carefully designed to induce precise physiological changes that will set your metabolism on fire.

Phase I (Monday-Tuesday): Lots of carbs and fruits
Phase II (Wednesday-Thursday): Lots of proteins and veggies
Phase III (Friday-Sunday): All of the above, plus healthy fats and oils
Continue reading “The Fast Metabolism Diet”