US Food Guidance
Comes Out With New Guidelines About Types of Fat
April 19, 2005
New U.S. Food Guidance System differentiates among
types of fat. In its comments to the U.S. government
in August 2004 about revising the Food Guidance System,
the USCA recommended that a graphic and related messages
differentiate among types of fats, namely between healthy
unsaturated fats and unhealthy saturated and trans fats,
and support a minimum intake level of healthy fats.
The new system does so by representing oils as one of
six bands in MyPyramid, which are needed each day for
good health, and providing recommendations for choosing
healthy oils "Inside MyPyramid."
In the latter recommendations, the USDA distinguishes
between oils and solid fats as well as among vegetable
oils based on saturated fat content. Vegetable oils
and foods that contain mainly oil with no trans fat
are recommended to be the main sources of fat in the
diet, with the exception of coconut and palm kernel
oils, which the USDA notes are "high in saturated fats
and for nutritional purposes should be considered to
be solid fats."
The new Food Guidance System depicts moderation by
the narrowing of each food group band from bottom to
top. The wider base stands for foods with little or
no solid fats, added sugars, or caloric sweeteners,
which "should be selected more often to get the most
nutrition from calories consumed," according to the
USDA. In addition, proportionality is shown by the different
widths of the food group bands.
Source: http://biz.yahoo.com
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