Be Heart-Healthy!
The American Heart Association Releases
New Dietary Guidelines
Following a heart-healthy diet doesn’t have to be as difficult anymore thanks to the AHA’s new simplified dietary guidelines
Tired of always trying to calculate grams and percentages of fats and calories each day? Well, the American Heart Association is trying to simplify its dietary guidelines to make it easier to adopt a heart-healthy diet.
The American Heart Association (AHA) has released new dietary guidelines to help individuals reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke – a major killer of Americans each year. Just published in the October 31 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, the expert nutrition committee has updated its dietary guidelines to emphasize a positive way to adopt healthy eating patterns instead of focusing only on percent of fat from calories and grams of cholesterol.
The updated AHA guidelines are more consistent with the USDA and Department of Health and Human Services Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2000 [make link] but include some specific recommendations on dietary factors that have been shown to influence the development of heart disease
The AHA dietary guidelines have been divided into 4 simplified categories to help Americans apply them to their long-term dietary pattern and lifestyle.
1. Achieve an overall healthy eating pattern.
2. Achieve a healthy body weight.
3. Achieve a desirable cholesterol level.
4. Achieve a desirable blood pressure level.
The AHA recommends including a variety of fruits and vegetables, grains, low-fat or nonfat dairy products, fish, legumes and lean meats. Additionally, the emphasis is on maintaining or losing excess weight – focusing more on preventing weight gain instead of promoting weight loss. Foods high in saturated fats and cholesterol should be limited and replaced with unsaturated fats from fish or plant sources. Finally, salt and alcohol should be limited to maintain a healthy weight and healthy blood pressure.
The main change in the AHA dietary guidelines is on emphasizing variety in the total diet over time and reducing the specific calculations of percentages and grams of items like calories, fat and cholesterol on a day-to-day basis which is difficult for most Americans. Other significant changes include:
· For the first time, emphasizing at least two servings of fish - like tuna or salmon - each week, due to recent evidence that fatty fish can reduce the risk of heart disease.
· Matching energy intake to energy needs – focusing on preventing weight gain and weight maintenance instead of weight loss.
· Limiting trans-fatty acids, from hydrogenated oils common in margarine, processed cookies, crackers and other baked goods. Trans-fatty acids act in the body like saturated fats that increase the risk of heart disease.
· Limiting salt to 6 grams (2,400 milligrams sodium) per day.
The guidelines continue to set desirable goals of less than 300 milligrams cholesterol for the general population and less than 200 milligrams for those diagnosed with heart disease, and recommend the use of alcohol in moderation (1 drink or less for women, 2 or less for men daily).
The updated guidelines are not major changes to the older guidelines that have been effective in helping Americans reduce their risk of heart disease over the past decade. Instead the new guidelines have been refined to reflect the most current scientific evidence about heart disease and make it easier for Americans to adopt them.
In the AHA’s new dietary guidelines, the expert committee also cites several nutrition issues that merit further research in the battle against heart disease. Some of these include the role of antioxidant supplements, B vitamins that reduce homocysteine levels, very low-fat diets and fat substitutes, omega-3 fatty acid supplements (found in fish oils), soy protein and isoflavones, stanol/sterol ester containing foods in reducing cholesterol, and fiber supplements. Stay tuned to learn about updates on these issues in the near future.
The new emphasis by the AHA on a varied diet rich in fruits, vegetables, grains and low-fat dairy and meats with more specific recommendations regarding cholesterol, saturated fat and sodium are in line with the general guidelines for the American population. Not only may they offer benefits in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke, but have a potential for also conferring health benefits and protection against several other chronic diseases. Try to adopt these guidelines in your own life and become heart-healthy!
References:
Krauss RM, et al., Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, October 31, 2000.
Internet site: http://www.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/4304635102/T1. Accessed October 2000.
Internet site: http://www.americanheart.org. Accessed October 2000.
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