The Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee Recommendations for
Fat: Then and Now
Every five years, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) reviews the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), and recommends evidence-based updates and revisions. The 2010 DGAC technical report (1) issued June 15, 2010 found that overall most Americans are not eating enough vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat milk and milk products, oils and seafood. There is an overconsumption of added sugars, solid fats, refined grains, and sodium. Further, though Americans would benefit from reducing the harmful fatty acids and cholesterol in their diet, intake levels have not changed dramatically in the past two decades. The 2010 DGAC report details many important dietary changes, including recommendations concerning dietary fat and cholesterol. The following table identifies or clarifies how 2010 differs from 2005 and provides tips for implementing changes.
| 2010 Guidelines | 2005 Guidelines | Tips for implementing the change |
|---|---|---|
| Consume less than 7 percent of calories from saturated fatty acids (SFA) & replace SFA intake with poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). | Consume less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fatty acids. | Replace products that are high in SFA (i.e. full- fat dairy products, butter, lard, marbled meats and bacon, and tropical oils such as coconut and palm) with items that are rich in PUFA and MUFA (i.e. vegetable oil spreads, vegetable and nut oils including canola, corn, safflower, soy, and sunflower, and almond, peanut, pecan and pistachio, as well as avocado and olive sources). |
| Limit total dietary cholesterol intake to <300mg/day and <200mg/day for individuals with or at high risk for CVD and Type 2 diabetes. | Consume less than 300 mg/day of cholesterol. | Limit overall total cholesterol intake by monitoring/reducing major sources of cholesterol in the American diet (i.e. egg yolks, dairy products, and meats). |
| Avoid consumption of trans-fats from industrial sources and limit to <0.5% of calories from natural sources | Keep trans fatty acid consumption as low as possible. | Limit total trans-fat intake by avoiding these common sources: commercially fried and baked foods (i.e. crackers, cookies, snack foods and commercially-prepared baked goods), stick margarines and foods containing partially-hydrogenated oils and natural sources (i.e. milk, sheep, goats, deer, buffalo, and marsupials). |
| Increase consumption of Omega-3 fatty acids by consuming two servings of seafood per week (4 oz. cooked, edible seafood per serving) which provide an average of 250 mg/day of omega-3 fatty acids from marine sources. | No specific recommendation concerning intake of fish or omega-3 fatty acids. | Aim for 2 servings of fatty fish/week (i.e. cold-water fish such as cod, halibut, mackerel and salmon). |
| Keep total fat intake between 20 to 35 percent of calories, in accordance with the Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range (AMDR). | Continue to work towards maintaining an overall lower fat intake; recent NHANES data (2005-2006) reports that mean intake is 33.6% of total calories from fat. | |
Table created by Pamela Nisevich Bede, MS, RD, CSSD
This information originally appeared in SCAN's Winter 2010 Wellness-CV Connection, an e-newsletter from the Wellness/CV RDs subunit. Its development was supported with an unrestricted educational grant from Promise.
Reference:
- Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. Available at http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DGAs2010-DGACReport.htm. Accessed 1 September, 2010.