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The Dietary Guidelines for Americans stresses the importance of fruits and vegetables.(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Concerned about the cholesterol and fat in your diet? That's so 2015.
If you want to stay on the cutting edge of nutrition advice, what you should really worry about are added sugars, according to a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>new report from the federal government that urges us to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>cut back –<span style="color: Red;">*</span>way back –<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on sugar.
The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting the amount<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of added sugars in our diet to no more than 10% of daily calories. That's about 12<span style="color: Red;">*</span>teaspoons of sugar a day. To put that in perspective, a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>can of Coke contains nearly 10 teaspoons.
Most of us would have to make big changes in our diets to follow the new guidelines.
Americans on average get about 13% of daily calories from added sugars; teens get closer to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>17% of calories from added sugars, according to the new report.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The natural sugar in foods such as raisins, apples or milk are not considered<span style="color: Red;">*</span>added sugars.
Nearly half of the added sugars in American diets come from sweetened beverages, such as sodas and sports drinks, according to the guidelines, published by the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Food and Drug Administration<span style="color: Red;">*</span>also has proposed changing food labels to list added sugars. The current label lists "total sugar," a combination of added and natural sugars. The Sugar Association opposes the labeling change, arguing that there's no scientific reason to differentiate added versus natural sugars.
USA TODAY
Why new dietary guidelines matter
Another big change this year: Americans no longer need to count the amount of cholesterol in their food, according to the guidelines.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>That's because a person's diet has a relatively small effect on cholesterol levels in the blood, which are more influenced by a person's genes.
Americans aren't just eating too much sugar.
They're also consuming too many saturated fats, refined grains and sodium. Men eat too much meat, poultry and eggs. But<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Americans<span style="color: Red;">*</span>don't eat enough fruits,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>vegetables, whole grains, seafood or dairy, according to the report.
Half of all U.S.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>adults<span style="color: Red;">*</span>–<span style="color: Red;">*</span>about 117 million people<span style="color: Red;">*</span>–<span style="color: Red;">*</span>have a preventable, diet-related chronic disease. Two-thirds of Americans<span style="color: Red;">*</span>are obese or overweight, thanks to a deadly combination of poor diet<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and lack of exercise,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>according to the report.
Obesity costs the USA<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at least $147 billion a year in medical costs, including<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the costs of treating weight-related disorders. Diabetes alone costs the USA $245 billion, according to the guidelines.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The costs grow<span style="color: Red;">*</span>even larger when economists factor in the number of days missed from work because obese people are too sick to go to the office. These costs range<span style="color: Red;">*</span>between $3.38 billion and $6.38 billion a year, according to the CDC.
Americans can begin to eat better by making "small shifts" in their diets,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>such as by preparing meals at home, said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, secretary of Health and Human Services.
Americans "don’t need<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to make huge, fundamental changes," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"Small changes can add up to big differences."
While few<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Americans will read the new report, which is aimed at professionals and policy makers,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>health groups and food industry lobbyists have paid close attention. That's because the Dietary Guidelines for Americans<span style="color: Red;">*</span>shape what millions of people<span style="color: Red;">*</span>eat and influence billions of dollars in federal spending.
The guidelines form the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>basis for federal nutrition policies, including the $16 billion National School Lunch Program, which serves 31 million children daily, and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the $4 billion<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC, which serves 8.3 million people. The Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs also consider the guidelines in their programs.
Lobbyists came out in full force to try to influence the new report.
More than 70 organizations signed up to speak at a hearing on the guidelines in March. Speakers included<span style="color: Red;">*</span>representatives from such diverse food industry groups as the North American Meat Institute and the Beer Institute and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which advocates a vegan diet,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>filed a lawsuit Wednesday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>against the agriculture and health and human services departments, charging that the agencies allowed the food industry to influence the new recommendations on cholesterol.
USA TODAY
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