Do the Dietary Guidelines Help Low-Carbers?
Updated June 24, 2014.
Originally Published on my Blog on 2/3/11
Well, it's finally here. All last year when the USDA was accepting input on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, I warned about it, informed about it, and complained about it to the USDA. Now, it's here. So what does it say, and what does it mean to us, as low-carb eaters?
First of all, don't think it means nothing. As just one example, the school lunch programs in the U.S.
are based on it. For another, very few nutritionists, educators in the media, or teachers in our schools are going to be giving information that doesn't fall in line with the guidelines. It will affect the foods available to us, and the chatter about nutrition that we hear all around us on a daily basis.
Secondly, know that a group of scientists has published an opposing opinion in the journal Nutrition: The paper is called “In the face of contradictory evidence: Report of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Committee“. Among many other things, the paper points out that there were concerns raised in the original guidelines over 30 years ago which still have not been addressed. These issues should have become clearer with more research, but they have not, and recommendations which were thought to address certain problems (e.g. lowering the fat content of the diet to prevent obesity) have not been borne out.
I am also not the first low-carb blogger to point out that despite all our clamoring, the USDA seems intent on ignoring the research on carbohydrate reduction in the diet.
But no one has pointed it out more entertainingly than Jimmy Moore in this video on You-Tube - do check it out!
Six Main Points
There are 6 main points the USDA wants to emphasize to the public:
1. Enjoy your food, but eat less.
Comment: Fine, but the reason they are saying this this is that they think people simply have to consume fewer calories. Gary Taubes has done a great job of explaining why this is not a good approach; we simply cannot consciously control our eating in that finely tuned a way if a) at the same time we are biasing our bodies to crave more food by overloading on carbohydrate or b) we cut too many calories and are going hungry. On the other hand, one of the great things about cutting carbs is that we cut calories without thinking about it.
2. Avoid oversized portions.
Comment: Somewhat redundant with #1. However, people are way out of touch with the portion sizes that the guidelines recommend. For example, a serving of pasta is half a cup - how many people eat half a cup of pasta??
3. Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
Comment: If Americans really took this to heart, I think it would be great. This means that half the plate won't be pasta or rice! For those who need less carbohydrate, put the emphasis on the vegetables. In fact, I suggest that at least half the plate be vegetables.
4. Switch to fat-free or low-fat (%1) milk.
Comment: They are still harping about saturated fat, despite the evidence that replacing carbohydrate with saturated fat at the very least does no harm and could very well be a benefit.
5. Choose foods with less sodium.
Comment: This is not an area I am well-versed in, although as I understand it, only a subset of the population is sensitive to salt. In any case, eating low-carb implies that we are eating mostly whole unprocessed foods. Since most people get the vast majority of their salt from packaged foods, this is not something that is generally a problem for low-carb eaters. The USDA wants people to limit their sodium intake to 2300 mg of sodium (about a teaspoon of salt per day), and to cut that amount by another third after age 51. Personally, it's hard for me to imagine that I eat as much as a teaspoon of salt in a day, unless I've eaten a lot of pickles, sausages, or bacon, which isn't very often.
6. Drink water instead of sugary drinks.
Comment: Hear, hear!! An amazing amount of sugar is consumed in the U.S. via this route.
Those 6 points are then followed by 110 pages of other details. Although they include things we can profitably ignore (eating more whole grains and limiting intake of cholesterol), I like that there is more emphasis on reducing added sugars and refined grains, and eating more fish and nuts. I also noticed much less harping about fat reduction (not including saturated fat). So being a glass-half-full type of person, I'd like to think that there are signs that the "eat tons of starch and no fat" days will soon be behind us. I guess we'll know in another five years.
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