Mya Nelson
The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans were released this morning and here at AICR, we’re excited about their emphasis on preventing obesity and eating more plant foods.
The new guidelines say that America’s overweight and obesity epidemic played a major role in developing the recommendations. The obesity epidemic carries a steep cost, the guidelines point out, increasing the risk of many chronic diseases, such as heart disease and cancer. Most are preventable. (For cancer, AICR estimates that over 1/3 of the most common cancers could be prevented if Americans ate healthy, exercised more, and stayed lean.)
A few of the guidelines’ take-home messages include:
• Enjoy your food, but eat less.
• Avoid oversized portions.
• Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
• Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk.
Overall, the guidelines support AICR’s recommendations for cancer prevention, which also emphasize the importance of staying a healthy weight and eating more plant foods.
So take a look at your plate. If you want to get started putting the guidelines into action tonight, try using AICR’s New American Plate approach.
There’s a lot in the guidelines; you can read all of it here. Stay tuned for more and let us know what you think about them.
