Dietary guidelines: Eat less, exercise more

A federal panel's draft report offers familiar advice.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Sept. 13, 2004.

New recommendations for updating federal dietary guidelines go beyond healthy eating to address the needs of a population that is increasingly obese and has chronic health problems that include hypertension and abnormal blood lipid values.

The report by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, released Aug. 27, urges Americans to eat more fruits and vegetables, whole grains and nonfat or low-fat dairy products; control calories to manage body weight; and be physically active every day. The report also recommends eating fish twice a week but advises women who are pregnant or lactating and children to avoid eating fish with a high mercury content.

In a change from past years, the report did not single out sugars for specific attention, preferring instead to advise people to choose healthy foods overall with an eye toward controlling calories.

Even small changes in diet, such as eating 50 to 100 fewer calories each day, could help an adult maintain a healthy weight over time, according to the report.

Every five years, an advisory committee is appointed to review the scientific literature on nutrition and make recommendations to the secretaries of Agriculture and Health and Human Services on what the American population should be eating.