Dietary Guidelines
What do the Dietary Guidelines do for Americans?
The Dietary Guidelines encourage Americans to eat a healthful diet — one that focuses on foods and beverages that help achieve and maintain a healthy weight, promote health, and prevent disease. Diet is a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons.
Getting enough nutrients within your calorie needs.
Your dietary calorie needs depend on your age, sex, metabolism, activity level, and body size. Nutrient dense foods give you the most nutrients for the fewest amount of calories.
How to maintain a healthy weight.
Suggestions for being physically active every day.
Active living can help you if you exercise everyday for at least 30 minutes. Active living could also help if you eat healthy on a everyday bases. It's recommended that teens get at least 1 hour of physical activity. Two guidelines for including physical activity into your daily schedule is to exercise in the morning or after noon when you have time and when you are getting ready to go to bed at night.
Importance of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and milk
3 reasons these foods are healthy is it could help you if you are losing weight. It causes less risk of getting any type of illness as in diabetes. Consuming at least three or more ounce-equivalents of whole grains per day can reduce the risk of several chronic disease and may help with weight maintenance. 2 health benefits of these foods are Milk is a great source of calcium, which is essential for healthy bones. Another is Consuming whole grains as part of a healthy diet may reduce the risk of heart disease. 3 ways to include these foods in your diet are to eat these for breakfast, snack, or dinner. You could also eat it as a snack after eating a full meal.
How to limit fats and cholesterol
Your body makes its own fat from taking in excess calories. Some fats are found in foods from plants and animals and are known as dietary fat.. Disease that can develop from a high fat diet are diabetes or heart attacks. Fats supply energy and essential fatty acids, and they help absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, and carotids. You need some fat in the food you eat, but choose sensibly. Some kinds of fat, especially saturated fats, increase the risk for coronary heart disease by raising the blood cholesterol.
Be choosy about carbohydrates
Foods that have a sweet taste, like fruits, are simple carbs. They contain a particular type of sugar called fructose. High-fructose corn syrup is a processed sugar derived from corn and used in the production of multiple foods and beverages. Food with added sugar are regular soft drinks, energy drinks, and sports drinks candy cakes cookies pies and cobblers sweet rolls, pastries, and donuts fruit drinks, such as fruitcakes and fruit punch dairy desserts, such as ice cream. Why should you limit your intake of added sugars? Well because research shows that in addition to being a prime culprit in tooth decay, too much sugar leads to several other health problems
Why reduce sodium and increase potassium?
Consuming high levels of sodium can have many negative health effects, such as increased blood pressure and heart complications. Stomach Cancer; Kidney Disease; Kidney Stones; Enlarged Heart Muscle; Headaches. Potassium is a very important mineral for the proper function of all cells, tissues, and organs in the human body.
Avoid alcohol
alcohol could disrupt development at a time when they're making important decisions about their lives (school, careers, relationships)
alcohol can also affect how the brain disseminates information into long-term memory, a crucial element in the process of learning
alcohol can affect visual-spatial functioning -- the ability to read distance properly or follow directions on a map.
Why is food safety an important part of the Dietary Guidelines?
Different foods contain different nutrients and other healthful substances. No single food can supply all the nutrients in the amounts you need. For example, oranges provide vitamin C and folate but no vitamin B12; cheese provides calcium and vitamin B12; but no vitamin C. To make sure you get all the nutrients and other substances you need for health, build a healthy base by using the Food Guide Pyramid as a starting point.