overview
A report on proposed changes to the US dietary guidelines suggests encouraging people to eat more beans and lentils for protein and less red meat. The updated guidelines are expected to come into effect late next year. Future guidelines should encourage people to eat more whole grains and reduce their intake of sugary drinks, sodium and processed foods, the report said.
Eat more beans, peas, and lentils as a source of protein and reduce your consumption of processed and red meat. These changes are among the recommendations detailed in a new report suggesting a possible update to the U.S. dietary guidelines.
The guidelines are revised on a five-year schedule, with new guidelines expected to take effect next year. The report, released Tuesday, comes from a USDA advisory committee made up of 20 professors in the public health and medical fields.
The committee said the updated guidelines, which will be in effect until 2030, emphasize plant-based protein, encourage people to eat more whole grains and reduce their intake of sugary drinks, sodium and processed foods. I suggested that it should be done.
“There is strong evidence to suggest that dietary patterns high in beans, peas, and lentils are associated with reduced risk of chronic disease,” said Vice Chair of the Advisory Committee and Professor of Maternal and Child Nutrition at Cornell University. said Angela Odoms Young. .
Current dietary guidelines classify beans, peas, and lentils as both vegetables and protein foods. However, a new report suggests removing plant protein from the vegetable group and placing it at the top of the protein food list to encourage people to eat more plant-based protein.
The proposal is based on a review of published research on the long-term association between diet and the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Previous research has established a link between diets high in processed red meat (products such as bacon and hot dogs) and an increased risk of negative health outcomes such as cancer and dementia. Although questions remain about the health effects of home-cooked unprocessed red meats such as steaks and lamb chops, years of research and dietary rankings show that a regimen commonly known as the Mediterranean diet is the healthiest. has consistently been found to be.
Their dietary pattern is primarily plant-based, with multiple servings of fruits and vegetables each day, along with whole grains, legumes, nuts, olive oil, and seafood. I only eat red meat occasionally. This diet is thought to be associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and related diseases such as obesity, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and replacing some red and processed meat with plant-based protein sources could help address the problem, Odoms-Young said.
She suggested people try “Meatless Mondays,” which either reduce the amount of meat in their meals or incorporate more beans, peas or lentils into the meals they’ve already planned.
“That’s not to say you shouldn’t eat animal protein, but how can you increase the amount of plant protein in your diet?” she says.
The report also recommends reducing sugary drinks and sodium, and increasing whole grain intake to make up 50% of total grain intake. According to the report, high intakes of sugar and salt and low intakes of whole grains are associated with negative health outcomes.
Sheryl Anderson, another member of the advisory committee, said: “When you look at the evidence about how these things affect people’s health, we see that they are the leading causes of preventable deaths, “We see that chronic disease is associated with overconsumption.” Herbert Wortman Dean of the Department of Public Health and Human Geriatric Sciences at the University of California, San Diego.
A 2019 study linked high consumption of sugary drinks to an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and another study published in the same year found that eating too much salt increased the likelihood of high blood pressure. did. Meanwhile, whole grains are known to lower your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other diseases, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Odoms-Young and Anderson said that in developing the proposed changes, committee members took into account factors such as differences in socioeconomic status and access to grocery stores to ensure that the proposed changes were fair and practical among different groups. He also said that he has considered ways to make it more accessible.
“We are making these recommendations in the hope that people can follow these guidelines no matter where they live, study, work, play or pray,” Anderson said. said.
Odoms-Young said the proposal was only a preliminary step because “most guidelines have not been met at this time.”
More broadly than the report, he said, U.S. leaders should consider how to implement policies and programs that help people meet the national dietary guidelines.
The report has been submitted to the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services for review, and a 60-day public comment period is underway. Ultimately, the government can decide whether to adopt some or all of the recommendations.
