Your Daily Dose of DGAs
Psssst... Hey, buddy, did you get your DGAs yet?
No, that's not the hottest new electronic gadget, and it's not a vitamin or even a check from the government. But it is something from the government that could help you live a longer, healthier life.
"DGAs" is shorthand for the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans — and there's no need to try to find a copy in your local bookstore, because it's available on-line at http://www.mypyramid.gov. Just click on the link for "Dietary Guidelines" on the left side of the page.
But if you're as rushed as I am these days, maybe you don't want to read the full 80-page report. So I'll give you a quick tour of some of the highlights!
First, the facts about fats: This edition of the guidelines is actually the first to include the recommendation that we should keep our trans fatty acids intake as low as possible. That's based on research conducted by scientists of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) working at the agency's Beltsville (Md.) Human Nutrition Research Center.
In the ARS study, 58 adult volunteers were fed four different controlled diets, described as "moderately high trans fat," "high trans fat," "high saturated fat," and "high heart-healthy oleic acid." The scientists measured the volunteers' LDL "bad" cholesterol levels every time the volunteers finished following one of the diets for six weeks.
The bad news: Every time the volunteers ate any of the trans-fat or saturated-fat diets — as opposed to the diet loaded with oleic acid — their LDL cholesterol levels went up significantly.
The researchers also say you shouldn't just run out and replace the trans fats in your diet with saturated fats. In fact, the dietary guidelines recommend consuming less than 10 percent of your daily calories from saturated fatty acids; if you eat 2,000 calories a day, that means 22 grams or less of saturated fats.
If you're not sure how much saturated fats you get in a day, the answer (unfortunately) is probably "too much." That's because a 2007 ARS data analysis of dietary trends in the U.S. showed that about 64 percent of adult Americans are eating too much of these fats.
ARS also funded a big study at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Mass., to look at the everyday eating habits of a group of more than 3,000 men and women.
What researchers found was that the study participants whose diets were most similar to the recommendations in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans were least likely to have what's now being called "metabolic syndrome." Metabolic syndrome is a condition that occurs among people who have at least three of the following health risks: abdominal obesity, poor control of blood sugar levels, high levels of fats in the blood, low levels of HDL "good" cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
The researchers say they can't definitely prove a cause-and-effect relationship between a healthier diet and lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome. But when they checked the diet and health indicators of the participants in this study, they found that the folks who did have metabolic syndrome tended to consume a diet that was less consistent with the recommendations in the 2005 DGAs.
Finally, the DGAs aren't just about what you put in your mouth; they also cover what you do with your body — even if you're elderly!
In another study at the USDA center at Boston, involving 213 volunteers aged 70 to 89 years, results showed that the better the participants' adherence to a regular program of moderate physical activity, the more improvements the participants saw in their physical functioning.
At the beginning of the study, all the volunteers were sedentary and had a variety of physical health problems. Half of the volunteers were assigned to an exercise program; the others only received home-based nutrition information.
After six months, each volunteer was tested for strength, balance, gait speed, and cardiovascular endurance. Those with the most physical improvement were the ones who reported exercising 150 minutes or more per week.
So, age (and aches) are no excuse: Up and at it!
"Everybody's
Science" is written by Sandy Miller Hays, Director of Information for
the Agricultural Research Service, the chief scientific research agency
of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hays is a native of Fort Smith,
Ark. From the late 1970s until early 1988, Hays was a reporter, editor
and columnist at the Arkansas Democrat (now the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette),
a Little Rock-based daily newspaper. She joined the ARS Information
Staff in 1988, and became Director of Information in April 1998.
Psssst... Hey, buddy, did you get your DGAs yet?
No, that's not the hottest new electronic gadget, and it's not a vitamin or even a check from the government. But it is something from the government that could help you live a longer, healthier life.
As part of the Strong Living Program, exercise physiologist Jennifer Layne (middle) and program coordinator Charlotte Mallio test a volunteer's muscle strength in the Nutrition, Exercise Physiology, and Sarcopenia Laboratory. (Photo by Stephen Ausmus)
But if you're as rushed as I am these days, maybe you don't want to read the full 80-page report. So I'll give you a quick tour of some of the highlights!
First, the facts about fats: This edition of the guidelines is actually the first to include the recommendation that we should keep our trans fatty acids intake as low as possible. That's based on research conducted by scientists of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) working at the agency's Beltsville (Md.) Human Nutrition Research Center.
In the ARS study, 58 adult volunteers were fed four different controlled diets, described as "moderately high trans fat," "high trans fat," "high saturated fat," and "high heart-healthy oleic acid." The scientists measured the volunteers' LDL "bad" cholesterol levels every time the volunteers finished following one of the diets for six weeks.
The bad news: Every time the volunteers ate any of the trans-fat or saturated-fat diets — as opposed to the diet loaded with oleic acid — their LDL cholesterol levels went up significantly.
The researchers also say you shouldn't just run out and replace the trans fats in your diet with saturated fats. In fact, the dietary guidelines recommend consuming less than 10 percent of your daily calories from saturated fatty acids; if you eat 2,000 calories a day, that means 22 grams or less of saturated fats.
If you're not sure how much saturated fats you get in a day, the answer (unfortunately) is probably "too much." That's because a 2007 ARS data analysis of dietary trends in the U.S. showed that about 64 percent of adult Americans are eating too much of these fats.
ARS also funded a big study at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Mass., to look at the everyday eating habits of a group of more than 3,000 men and women.
What researchers found was that the study participants whose diets were most similar to the recommendations in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans were least likely to have what's now being called "metabolic syndrome." Metabolic syndrome is a condition that occurs among people who have at least three of the following health risks: abdominal obesity, poor control of blood sugar levels, high levels of fats in the blood, low levels of HDL "good" cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
The researchers say they can't definitely prove a cause-and-effect relationship between a healthier diet and lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome. But when they checked the diet and health indicators of the participants in this study, they found that the folks who did have metabolic syndrome tended to consume a diet that was less consistent with the recommendations in the 2005 DGAs.
Finally, the DGAs aren't just about what you put in your mouth; they also cover what you do with your body — even if you're elderly!
In another study at the USDA center at Boston, involving 213 volunteers aged 70 to 89 years, results showed that the better the participants' adherence to a regular program of moderate physical activity, the more improvements the participants saw in their physical functioning.
At the beginning of the study, all the volunteers were sedentary and had a variety of physical health problems. Half of the volunteers were assigned to an exercise program; the others only received home-based nutrition information.
After six months, each volunteer was tested for strength, balance, gait speed, and cardiovascular endurance. Those with the most physical improvement were the ones who reported exercising 150 minutes or more per week.
So, age (and aches) are no excuse: Up and at it!
The Agricultural Research Service is the chief in-house scientific
research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. You can read
more about ARS discoveries at http://www.ars.usda.gov/news/.
About the author
"Everybody's
Science" is written by Sandy Miller Hays, Director of Information for
the Agricultural Research Service, the chief scientific research agency
of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hays is a native of Fort Smith,
Ark. From the late 1970s until early 1988, Hays was a reporter, editor
and columnist at the Arkansas Democrat (now the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette),
a Little Rock-based daily newspaper. She joined the ARS Information
Staff in 1988, and became Director of Information in April 1998.