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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Why Is
Dietary Guidelines Important For Heart Disease Prevention? Diet plays an important part in people’s life if their ultimate aim is to stay away from chronic diseases. Unfortunately, most people appear to have diet that is low in vegetables, fruit and whole grains and too high in calories, saturated fat, sodium, refined grains and added sugars. In other words, most people tend to have an unhealthy diet either consciously or unconsciously. People with unhealthy diet and inadequate physical activity are at a higher risk of becoming overweight or obese and can be targets of chronic diseases. In the United States, more than two-thirds of adults and nearly one-third of children and youth are overweight or obese. Meanwhile, about half of all Americans (117 million individuals) have one or more preventable chronic diseases that relate to poor dietary patterns and physical inactivity, including cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke), hypertension, Type-2 diabetes and diet-related cancers. Every 5 years, the Health and Human Services Department and the Department of Agriculture in the United States will issue new dietary guidelines after gathering ideas from an independent panel of experts. This year, the federal government is expected to release the new guidelines at the end of the year. According to the experts, Americans have very bad food choices and eat too little vitamin D, calcium, potassium and fiber and consume too much fat and salt. And these bad eating habits are making people sick. New recommendations reaffirm the 2010 guidelines: eat more vegetables, less fat and salt and to exercise more. The key differences are fewer restrictions on cholesterol-rich foods and, for the first time, advising children and adolescents to avoid consumption of high-caffeine energy drinks. The panel also urges the federal government to do more to get Americans to actually follow the recommendations. Despite sustained and dedicated education campaigns in the past, Americans still eat too much white flour and sugar, drink too many sugary soft drinks and eat too much animal fat.
The devastating health problems have persisted for decades and this has stained the health care costs. Instead of prevention, the authorities used to focus the attention of the health care system on disease treatment. Now, it is time for the authorities to take bold action and devise some sound and innovative solutions. Obviously, people misread the messages that have been disseminated in the past years. It is easier to get the word across by telling people what should be eaten more instead of what should be eaten less. For instance, many Americans ate less fat but end up eating more processed carbohydrates. However, in order to move people more towards the guidelines that are evidence based, it is important for the authorities to understand more on why people make food choices. Red and processed meats should be reduced but the new guidelines drop the restriction on no more than 300 mg of cholesterol a day since available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol, and most Americans eat less than that already. Nevertheless, this does not mean people can just eat all they want. Other recommendations include the dangers of mercury and other heavy metals do not outweigh the benefits of eating fish; a little alcohol is fine; up to 400 mg of caffeine (3 to 5 cups of coffee) are all right; kids should avoid energy drinks; eat less salt; water is the preferred beverage choice; kids should exercise an hour a day and adults should exercise at least an hour and a half a week. Coffee contains phytochemicals, natural plant products that have been increasingly shown to benefit health. In fact, moderate coffee consumption might offer some protection against Type-2 diabetes and Parkinson's. The report also stresses on sustainable diets that make sure there is plenty of food for everyone now and in the future. A diet higher in plant-based foods, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds and lower in calories and animal-based foods is more health-promoting and can have less environmental impact than is the current American diet.
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