Posted April 5, 2011
Remember when it was just four basic food groups, your teacher showed you how to make ants on a log (a champion healthy snack) and some cartoon guy with a top hat talked about the delights of cheese and crackers between your Saturday morning cartoons and we called all of that nutrition?
Those were simpler days.
Food groups became the food pyramid, which was rebuilt in several ways over the years. It was a great tool for dietitians, but seeing fruit stacked on top of a grain base didn’t really change what you ordered for lunch.
The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services recently released the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The guideline writers have gotten back to basics again: Watch your portion sizes. Drink skim or 1 percent milk. The number of calories you consume and the number you burn should be balanced. Eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. And you’ve got to cut back on your sodium.
“They’re trying to make it people-friendly. I think the food pyramid was great for what it was, but I think people were confused,” says Karen Ingoldsby, a registered dietician at Schenectady-based Ellis Medicine.
“This trend is trying to reach the general population and educate them a little bit better.”
Here are some of the highlights:
Don’t blame the shaker.
It’s not just canned soup and frozen meals. Sodium — which the guidelines say you should limit to less than 2,300 milligrams a day or 1,500 milligrams a day if you’re 51 or older, black or have hypertension, diabetes or chronic kidney disease — is found in unexpected places, like your morning toast.
According to the USDA’s report on the guidelines, the highest individual source of sodium in the American diet is yeast breads (7 percent), followed by chicken and chicken mixed dishes and pizza. But don’t toss out that loaf of whole wheat yet (even though Ingoldsby says whole wheat bread contains slightly more sodium than white). It’s more about how much bread we eat than the bread’s sodium content.
The key to reducing your sodium intake, Ingoldsby says, is by eating fewer processed foods, which tend to be sodium-rich. It can be as simple as shopping on the perimeter of the grocery store rather than the center aisles, where many of the processed products are sold.
Two and a half cups? You can do it. It’s never any trouble when it’s ice cream.
The guidelines say to eat more fruits and vegetables. Research says taking in at least 2 1/2 cups of vegetables and fruits (five servings) a day has been associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.
“It’s really not as difficult as most people think to include those,” Ingoldsby says. “People are consuming a little bit more than they realize.”
An easy way to make sure you’re getting your 2 1/2 cups is to eat fruit or vegetable at every meal, she says. And remember that checking off one serving of fruit is as easy as eating a small apple or banana. Behemoth produce has become more common at the supermarket, and some of those Granny Smiths and Galas are so large they count as two servings. Score.
Don’t blame McDonald’s. This super-sizing was on us.
The guidelines say to avoid oversized portions. They’re not just talking about polishing off a pint of ice cream in one sitting. Our society has a case of portion distortion.
You may know that the bottle of Pepsi you drank with lunch was 2.5 servings, but did you realize you poured a triple serving of Special K into your cereal bowl that morning? One serving of the cereal is just 1 cup. Dump it into a measuring cup for a while until you get used to what it looks like in your bowl. (Your cupped hand is a quick way to measure 1/2 cup. A fistful is roughly a cup, Ingoldsby says.) Fortunately, most people need two servings of grains in the morning, so either double the cereal or eat a piece of toast, too.
And if you’re afraid your properly portioned meals aren’t enough to fuel you through the day, consider what you’re eating. A balanced diet — with all of the needed fiber, protein and nutrients — will make you feel full, Ingoldsby says.
If you don’t think skim milk is tasty, you could pour chocolate syru… never mind.
Back when there were only four food groups, dieticians were trying to get us to abandon whole milk for 2 percent. Now, the guidelines are asking us to drop to 1 percent or skim.
But you want to drink milk, not something that tastes like water? Give it time.
“It’s just your orientation,” Ingoldsby says. “If you’re drinking whole milk, skim milk is going to taste pretty lousy.”
She suggests clients who are “stuck on 2 percent” start mixing their 2 percent with 1 percent until they adjust to the taste. They can taper down from there.
Gills on your grills
Eat more seafood — a recommended 8 ounces per week — and less meat and poultry, the guidelines say. Sure, there are healthy heart-protecting fats in the catch of the day, but that can be a tough one for people who’d never dream of throwing a tuna steak instead of a ribeye on their grill.
“Sometimes, the problem is that they just don’t know what to do with (seafood),” Ingoldsby says, adding that she likes to offer recipes to the people she helps. “Start out with tilapia or flounder, something that doesn’t have a strong odor to it.”
Some people are afraid to eat seafood because of the presence of methyl mercury, a heavy metal found in seafood in varying levels. But the research shows the benefits of those fatty acids contained in seafood outweigh any mercury risks.
Reach Jennifer Gish at 454-5089 or jgish@timesunion.com.
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Copyright © 2011, Times Union, Albany, N.Y.