New guidelines say cut the carbs

In a landmark report, the US National Academy of Sciences on 5 September 2002 issued the first recommended dietary allowance for carbohydrates and urged Americans to eat more healthy fats.

The NAS report recommends that both adults and children consume at least 130 grams a day of carbohydrates, and acknowledges that the vast majority of Americans already exceed this intake.

 

The recommendations also include doubling the amount of exercise Americans currently do, listing broad new targets for how many calories to eat daily based in part on physical activity.

 

It also establishes the first recommended intake for two healthy fats that appear to help reduce sudden death from heart disease. Known as polyunsaturated fats, these beneficial fats can't be manufactured by the body and so need to be eaten every day. Food sources include milk as well as flaxseed, soybean, safflower and corn oil.

 

The report points out the risks of saturated fat and trans-fatty acids, a fat frequently used in baked and fried food. Dietary cholesterol, the report notes, should also be eaten sparingly, since the body naturally makes all that it needs. These three fats help contribute to the risk of heart disease, the report notes.

 

Issued by the academy after more than two years of study, the report, called the Dietary Reference Intakes, sets a broader range for fat and carbohydrate intake for healthy people. Echoing the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's guidelines, the report said that healthy diets can include as much as 35 percent fat or about 5 percent more than has been previously recommended. The report also notes, however, that fat intake can drop as low as 20 percent of daily calories and remain healthy.

 

Most important, the report notes, is for Americans to reach a healthy weight and maintain it. Government figures show that more than half of Americans are overweight or obese with childhood obesity and type two diabetes also on the rise.

 

In an attempt to get serious about the obesity epidemic, the new recommendations emphasise how many calories are burned each day with physical activity. The report sets a daily goal of 60 minutes a day of moderate intensity exercise - twice the amount recommended by the US Surgeon General in 1996.