Search Weight Loss Topics:




Jan 15

Dietary update explains what you should eat from infant to older adulthood – Duluth News Tribune

Dr. Donald Hensrud, director of the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program, says the dietary guidelines, which are updated every five years, are designed to give the best recommendations on what to eat and drink to promote health and prevent disease.

One of the changes for this edition of the guidelines is focused on a lifespan approach from infancy to older adulthood. "We've known for quite some time that for the first six months of an infant's life, they should be fed exclusively human breast milk," says Dr. Hensrud.

"Another addition that people may not be aware of is that when foods are introduced to an infant around the age of 4 to 6 months, peanut-containing foods can be added to the diet after checking with the infants health care provider. The evidence shows that by adding peanuts early in the diet, it may prevent allergies later on. Also, under the age of 2 years, no added sugars should be included in the diet of children. Added sugars do not provide any health benefit.

Key recommendations from the guidelines include:

Hensrud says that before the guidelines are released, a scientific report on dietary guidelines is published. The dietary guidelines are then derived from this scientific report.

"What many people who work in nutrition would have liked to have seen is a lower limit for added sugars and alcohol. This was included in the scientific report, but did not end up in the Dietary Guidelines," Hensrud says.

"For example, the dietary guidelines recommend no more than 10% of calories as added sugars. But the scientific report recommended no more than 6%," he says. "Similarly, previous guidelines recommended up to no more than an average of two drinks per day for men. The scientific report recommended lowering this to one drink a day on average for both men and women. The Dietary Guidelines still recommend up to two drinks a day for men."

Hensrud says the less added sugars in your diet, the better it will be. "We know that there is very little health benefit and many health risks from including too much added sugars in the diet. Sugars that are naturally present, such as in fruit, are fine to have in the diet."

Read more:
Dietary update explains what you should eat from infant to older adulthood - Duluth News Tribune

Related Posts

    Your Full Name

    Your Email

    Your Phone Number

    Select your age (30+ only)

    Select Your US State

    Program Choice

    Confirm over 30 years old

    Yes

    Confirm that you resident in USA

    Yes

    This is a Serious Inquiry

    Yes

    Message:



    matomo tracker