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Show Scientists sort out fads & facts of healthy diet ' Nutrition guidelines have come a long way since the four food1 groups, the five food groups and most recently the USDA guidelines. As scientists gradually sort out the fads from the facts, we are getting get-ting a better picture of what, exactly, exact-ly, "a healthy diet" is. The newest, most specific set of guidelines to date have been designed by the National Research CounciL According to Dr. Bonita Wyse, dietitian and dean of the College of Family Life at Utah State University, Univer-sity, these nine guidelines are the first to actually rank the importance of various dietary practices. For instance, Wyse says the number one ranked recommendation recommenda-tion is "reduce total fat intake to 30 percent or less of calories, reduce saturated fat to 10 percent of calories and the intake of cholesterol to 300 milligrams daily." dai-ly." ' ; of consumers comes at a time when more meals are being eaten outside the home and generally people have less time to shop and prepare food, . she says. : . . Her non-technical advice is to . shop the perimeter of the store. That means lean poultry, fish and red meats, produce, skim milk and low- ' fat cheeses and breads. Anything you buy from the middle of the store should have a label and you -should read it with these guidelines in mind. If you don't follow this ; course of action, it is difficult to make wise food choices. ; She adds that all fast food restaurants restau-rants should have nutritional infor-; mation about their food, but you usually have to ask for it Sit down r restaurants are more difficult You : have to ask for broiled meats and ask for sauces, dressing and condiments con-diments on the side so you can con- trol the portions. The science supporting nutri-tional nutri-tional guidelines is improving, but 1 in turn, more responsibility has fallen on the shoulders of con- v sumers as they control the details of good health, she said. - ' . .: , The number two recommendation recommenda-tion is to eat five or more one-half cup servings of a combination of, vegetables and fruits, especially green and yellow vegetables and citrus fruits, daily. . Also, increase intake of starches and other complex carbohydrates -by eating six or more daily servings of a combination of breads, cereals and legumes. Carbohydrates should total more than 55 percent of calories, she said. : Limiting intake of salt to six grams or less a day ranks sixth out of the nine recommendations, Wyse said. m . The recommendations and their relative importance are based on, the distillation of a 1300 page docu-- docu-- ment called "Diet and Health: Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk," -Wyse says." The: ranking of the guidelines were based bas-ed on the relative weight of the scientific evidence. Thus, she said, regulating our intake in-take of various fats is considered the number one concern based on nutrition and health research. Although these guidelines are a ' great improvement over their -predecessors and they do give specific numbers, she says the downfall is that consumers still are required to do a lot of work to put them into practice. Wyse says they still require careful reading of labels, a basic understanding of the metric system and an ability to count calories and figure percentages. Requiring this effort on the part |
