Cut salt, fat and sugar; eat a more plant-based diet… that’s the key message for healthy food choices from the federal government’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
The latest incarnation of diet guidelines urges all of us to reduce the amount of sugar, salt, saturated fats and refined grains and eat more veggies, fruits, whole grains, low fat dairy and seafood. This not only will help us all stay healthy, it will lower the risk of chronic diseases and the prevalence of obesity.
The problem is that fats and added sugars make up almost 35% of the calories of the typical western diet.
Too many of us are eating way too many calories thanks to energy dense but nutrient poor foods coupled with our largely sedentary lifestyle. It’s this that is fueling the obesity epidemic in this country, and leaving too many open to the consequences of all that weight: heart disease, diabetes, hypertension stroke and even some cancers. Continue reading