2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines

There have been a lot changes in the 2016 year, among them were the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines released January 7^th of this year.  The guidelines are reviewed every 5 years based on current research and are meant to help professionals create healthy diets.  New changes include guidelines on added sugar, caffeine, sodium and cholesterol.

                Added sugar is a growing problem.  The new guidelines recommend limiting added sugars to 10% of a person’s total daily caloric intake. For a 2000 calorie diet that is approximately 200 calories or 50 grams of sugar. Unfortunately at this time there is no way to easily identify how much added sugars are in foods.  In 2018 new food labels will listed added sugars separately from naturally occurring ones.  Until then check the ingredients for words that will identify added sugars such as honey, agave, molasses, and anything that ends in ose such as fructose. 

                Caffeine made an appearance for the first time in the guidelines as well.  The recommendation is for 400mg or less per day.  On average coffee has between 100-200mg, Breakfast tea contains 60-90mg, black tea has 30-60mg and green tea has 25-50 mg.  The guidelines don’t make any recommendations to consume caffeine merely that there are no increased risk of major chronic diseases at this level of intake.

                The 2015 guidelines loosened up slightly on sodium recommendations removing its 1500 mg restriction for African Americans and people over 51 years old.  However the recommendation stays intact for those with hypertension (high blood pressure), prehypertension and heart disease.

                Also removed from the guidelines is the recommendation to limit cholesterol.  The guidelines do continue to recommend replacing unhealthy fats (saturated and trans fats) with more healthy fats (unsaturated fats).   The recommendation remains to limit saturated fat to 10% of diet (remember for heart patients this is even stricter 5-6% or approximately 13g).  The recommendation for trans fats remains less than 1%.  Remember to check the ingredient list for these hidden fats with the words “partially hydrogenated.”

                These guidelines are used to shape the My plate (https://www.choosemyplate.gov/MyPlate-Daily-Checklist) which is a helpful visual representation of what these guidelines mean.  The fact remains however that it is difficult to think of these guidelines in terms of what an actual diet would look like.  Try to remember to make half of your plate fruits and vegetables shooting for at least 7 servings per day (1 cup raw/1/2 cup cooked), 3 oz of lean proteins, with the final ¼ of your plate whole grains. Use these updated guidelines to help you read labels and bring healthier foods into your diet.  And remember that more so than any one magic food it is overall diet quality that makes the difference. 

Tis the Season for Giving

Take a moment to think about being hungry.  How does it feel?  How do you fix being hungry?  Now imagine not knowing where your next meal will come from.  For millions of Americans that is a reality 42.2 million to be exact.  1 in 6.  I've been fortunate to never been hungry.  I've been hangry but not food insecure. Today I spoke about nutrition and budgeting at a Senior Nutrition Program here in Salinas. Having worked for a supplemental food program I was vaguely aware that there was a similar program for seniors.  For those of you not in the know, the Alliance of Aging's Elderly Nutrition Program is a grant-funded program created to improve the nutrition of the elderly as well as create new social opportunities.  Today participants also received donations from the food bank as well.  Not only does the program provide for in center meals, they also do home delivery and a Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program which gives seniors a one-time financial incentive to shop at Farmers Market.
I want you to imagine for a minute that you are 70 years old.  You have some health problems.  You're unable to drive far and you're living on a limited budget.  What are your priorities?  Do you eat?  Do you pay bills?  Do you keep the lights on?  Just imagine.  Don't assume it can't happen to me I put money away and I have a family.  Just imagine, you're a senior, you're isolated, you count on this one meal a week and donations for food.  What would you want to eat?  What would you need to supplement?  Ok, hold that in your mind.  When you see donation bins this winter for the food bank, hold that in your mind. Imagine one step farther what would a nutritionally adequate meal look like.  What would you eat for dinner if you were to eat your healthiest meal?  Hold that in your mind and Donate that.  Donate dried beans and low sodium canned beans, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, low sodium canned vegetables, Canned fruit in water or its own juice.  Donate dried fruit and unsalted nuts.  Don't use the food bank as a waste bin for the foods you don't want.  Just because they are poor they shouldn't "just be grateful for what they get."

Now for some startling statistics:
About 5,000 nutrition service providers together serve over 900,000 meals a day in communities all across the United States.
Monterey County Food bank feeds 1/5th of Monterey County with 6 million pounds of food.
34% of Monterey County residents are food insecure.

I remember the day I learned why WIC only goes until age 5 for kids.  That is when school lunch programs pick up.  Hunger is an issue that spans across all age ranges.  It's personal and many times you don't know who around you is or has suffered from hunger. Seniors and children are most likely to suffer from hunger issues.  Don't let America's obesity epidemic fool you into thinking that hunger is not an issue.  I remember when I first went to work for WIC thinking that hunger did not look like what I thought.  The unfortunate reality is that low nutrition low-cost foods are readily available while low-cost nutrient-dense foods are not so much.   As so many call for us to come together, I will add my voice to the call.  Be good to one another this holiday season and every other day think of those less fortunate than you.