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What are Dietary Guidelines?

Allison Boelcke
Allison Boelcke

Dietary guidelines are nutritional advice for Americans provided by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Every five years, these agencies release a new set of guidelines concerning which foods decrease chance of disease and benefit personal health. Government-sponsored diet and exercise educational programs use these guidelines as their main source to determine the focus of their programs.

All Americans over two years of age can use the dietary guidelines. They are specifically intended for an American audience due to the country’s high rate of obesity, which is thought to be caused by an unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity. These guidelines are also the basis for the nutritional information on food packaging, which shows what percentages of fat, calories, and other nutrients a particular food contains. They not only outline the recommended calorie, fat, and cholesterol intake for American age groups, they also relate the specific risks of disease that come with not following the guidelines. These diseases include heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even cancer.

The aim of dietary guidelines is to promote healthy eating.
The aim of dietary guidelines is to promote healthy eating.

The guidelines also serve as a way of reporting new or continuing concerns researchers have found with the American diet. This can include findings on what key nutrients they found to be lacking, such as calcium, fiber, and potassium. They also break down nutritional deficiencies found in specific age and other population groups, and gives recommendations on how to add the proper vitamins and nutrients into their diets.

Obesity rates continue to skyrocket in the United States and many other industrialized nations.
Obesity rates continue to skyrocket in the United States and many other industrialized nations.

Generally, dietary guidelines are not published for the average American to read. Instead, they are intended for federal policymakers, nutritionists, and medical professionals as a scientific basis to use for educating the public. The federal government uses them to decide which issues to focus on in nutritional education programs in schools, or to enact nutrition-based legislation. For example, the government used these guidelines to decide that the food must contain less than 3 grams of fat per serving to be advertised as low-fat.

The federal government uses dietary guidelines when enacting nutrition-based legislation or deciding policies on school nutritional education programs.
The federal government uses dietary guidelines when enacting nutrition-based legislation or deciding policies on school nutritional education programs.

Nutritionists and medical professionals use the dietary guidelines to give proper advice on diet and nutrition to their patients. These guidelines are used as a way of keeping all health professionals on the same track on what constitutes a healthy diet so that Americans don’t get conflicting health information. They also provide updated research to use as basis for diet recommendations to patients because the guidelines are subject to change every five years.

Discussion Comments

Crispety

Suntan12-I agree that with you. I think however, if you take in whole grains instead of enriched white flour then you are eating the bread in its natural state and it will contain a higher degree of fiber which is important to develop a healthy colon and overall digestive system.

This is really an important distinction. If you stay away from foods with white flour such as white bread, and cookies and focus on whole grain rice, or whole grain bread you will not experience problems with your blood sugar.

I know that the dietary guidelines for children are similar to that of adults but they need additional servings of milk. They should have at least three to four servings of milk because it contains Vitamin D and calcium. These are really healthy dietary guidelines.

suntan12

The recommended dietary guidelines include eating four to five fruits and vegetables, and four to five servings of whole grains and two to three servings of calcium which involve milk and cheese products.

In addition, two servings of lean protein are recommended. This would include chicken, turkey, and lean red meat like sirloin.

The dietary food guidelines also include eating seafood twice a week because these foods like salmon and tuna are high in protein and rich in Omega3 fatty acids that actually aid the heart.

Dietary intake guidelines include 2400 calories but this needs to be adjusted depending on your weight. Some say that the dietary guidelines in the food pyramid allow too many carbohydrates that often convert to sugar in the blood stream and not only does this prevent weight loss, but it may contribute to insulin problems that might lead to diabetes.

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    • The aim of dietary guidelines is to promote healthy eating.
      By: millefloreimages
      The aim of dietary guidelines is to promote healthy eating.
    • Obesity rates continue to skyrocket in the United States and many other industrialized nations.
      By: JanMika
      Obesity rates continue to skyrocket in the United States and many other industrialized nations.
    • The federal government uses dietary guidelines when enacting nutrition-based legislation or deciding policies on school nutritional education programs.
      By: Zap Ichigo
      The federal government uses dietary guidelines when enacting nutrition-based legislation or deciding policies on school nutritional education programs.
    • A dietary calorie can be helpful in setting daily limits of food that can be burned by the body.
      By: Iryna Melnyk
      A dietary calorie can be helpful in setting daily limits of food that can be burned by the body.
    • Dietary guidelines can help people make smarter eating choices.
      By: Lsantilli
      Dietary guidelines can help people make smarter eating choices.