4.8: Practical Application of Dietary Guides

Several organizations and government agencies give dietary advice, e.g., the American Heart Association americanheart.org and the American Cancer Society cancer.org. Most of the dietary recommendations are covered by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and ChooseMyPlate.gov. It’s reassuring that experts from these various groups give similar advice.

Food groups focus on providing enough nutrients. Dietary guides help us select foods within food groups. Drinking fat-free or low-fat milk instead of whole milk, for example, means making a selection in the dairy group that’s lower in saturated fat.† Also, fat-free and low-fat milk have fewer calories, so this choice can help sustain a healthy weight.

A major source of saturated fat is dairy fat (butterfat), as in cheese and ice cream. Fatty meat is also a major source. To cut back, order a hamburger instead of a cheeseburger. How about pepperoni-mushroom pizza instead of pepperoni-sausage pizza; thick- instead of thin-crust pizza; low-fat frozen yogurt instead of ice cream? Don’t forget the possibility of just smaller portions of your favorite foods!

Make changes gradually. It’s hard to switch abruptly from, say, whole milk to fat-free milk. Switch by combining whole milk and 2%-fat milk, gradually increasing the proportion of lower-fat milk. Once you switch to the 2%, combine 2% and 1%-fat milk, and then 1 % and fat-free milk. Once you switch to fat-free milk, even low-fat milk may taste like cream and can then substitute for cream in coffee, etc.

If you habitually eat at fast-food places, start by not going as often. Fast food is typically high in calories, saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar. Look online. A Big Mac Combo Meal (Big Mac, medium fries, medium Coca Cola) is 1080 calories (54%DV, i.e., 54% of 2000 cal/day), 64%DV for saturated fat, 57%DV for sodium, 130%DV for added sugar. This one meal has more than 50% of a daily “allotment” of calories, saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar.

The dietary recommendations form the basis of a prudent diet—there are good reasons that the advice is healthful, and there are few, if any, reasons it’s harmful. Most of us have a lot to gain from following the recommendations, whether we’re overweight or underweight, athletes or couch potatoes.

Upcoming chapters explain in more detail how the dietary advice relates to health, and provide a basic knowledge of food composition so that we can make healthful choices. Some knowledge of how the body functions and the role of nutrients in these bodily functions also is needed, not only to understand the basis of the various dietary guides, but also to make intelligent assessments of all dietary advice.

As a final note, keep in mind that it’s the overall diet—not individual foods—that’s good or bad. Think in terms of being able to eat anything you want—just make a habit of eating foods like candy, hot dogs, and potato chips in smaller amounts or not as often.

People often think of healthy food as being bland and boring. Many cuisines tell us otherwise. As one of many examples, a bean burrito topped with a scoop of a zesty salsa of red tomatoes, purple onions, bright green cilantro, chili peppers, lime juice, and a dash of olive oil is neither bland nor boring, yet in keeping with dietary guidelines.

Eating for health and eating for pleasure can be the same. Eating is more than ingesting a collection of nutrients. Good eating encompasses the social, cultural, and sensual aspects that we find so pleasurable.

^{*BMI (Body Mass Index) combines weight and height into one number: BMI = your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters. Non-metric version: BMI = your weight in pounds times 703 divided by the square of your height in inches. BMI is used to assess whether you are underweight, obese, etc., and your risk of diabetes, heart disease, etc. Excess abdominal fat is also a risk factor. With a BMI of 35 or less, a waist circumference of 35+ inches in women, and 40+ inches in men raises risk, e.g., a man with a BMI of 24.5 and a waist of 42 inches moves up to the Increased Risk of Disease category. The height-weight chart gives for each height, a “healthy” weight range.
†The recommendation is to limit saturated fat intake to less than 10% of total calories: 10 g (90 calories) per 1,000 calories = 9% of calories from saturated fat (saturated fat is discussed in the next chapter).}