Dietary Guidelines in the 21st Century: Progress, Not Perfection
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans evolve with each new version. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 continues this trend of routine updates. (3) It also continues to reflect the tense interplay of science and the powerful food industry.
Several of the recommendations in the current version represent important steps in the right direction:
Move to a plant-based diet. The guidelines emphasize eating more foods from plants, such as vegetables and beans, whole grains, and nuts.
Choose fish twice a week. They encourage Americans to eat more seafood in place of red meat or poultry, acknowledging its special benefits for the heart.
Not all proteins are equally healthy. They recognize that some protein-rich foods, such as meat, poultry, and eggs, are higher in so-called “solid fats”—the saturated and trans fats that Americans need to cut back on—and recommend replacing them with fish and nuts, or choosing leaner forms of protein.