American Heart Association announcement:
American Heart Association dietary recommendations dish out a more
individualized approach

New York City, Oct. 5, 2000 - The American Heart Association today
unveiled
its new dietary guidelines, which have been expanded to include
specific
recommendations tailored to an individual's risk of heart disease and
stroke.
         The guidelines, based on an analysis of hundreds of studies,
will
be published in the Oct. 31 issue of Circulation: Journal of the
American
Heart Association.
Ronald M. Krauss, M.D., the principal author of the guidelines and a
senior
scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the
University of
California, says the four main goals of the new guidelines are to help
Americans achieve an overall healthy eating pattern; achieve and
maintain an
appropriate body weight; achieve and maintain a desirable cholesterol
profile, and achieve and maintain a desirable blood pressure level.
Guidelines are food, not percentage based
For the first time, the guidelines stress the importance of preventing
obesity and are easier to use because they stress overall eating
patterns,
rather than a percentage of dietary fat or other nutrients.
"We are emphasizing the positive message of what people should eat -
for
example, more plant-based foods," says Krauss.  "In the past we have
focused
rather heavily on the percent of calories as fat and amounts of
cholesterol.
  These are still important considerations, but the emphasis has
shifted to
allow consumers to understand the importance of an overall eating
plan.
"Americans still need to limit saturated fats and cholesterol, but if
they
follow the new dietary guidelines, they will be consuming a balanced
diet
rich in nutrients, and may not need to calculate percentages or
amounts of
specific dietary components," he adds.
"When people eat out, it's hard to think about what percentage of the
dinner
comes from saturated fat.  It's much easier to think about the various
food
groups."

Varied diet full of fruits, vegetables, grains and fish
A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes (beans), whole grains,
low-fat
dairy products, fish, lean meats and poultry is still the basis of the
recommendations.  The association continues to recommend eating five
servings of fruits and vegetables and six servings of grains daily.
But,
for the first time, two weekly servings of fatty fish, such as tuna or
salmon, are recommended.
The association recommends that healthy adults minimize the intake of
foods
containing high levels of saturated fats (found in animal products and
tropical oils) and substantially reduce the intake of trans fatty
acids (the
hydrogenated oil found in commercially prepared foods and some hard
margarines).  For individuals with risk factors for heart disease or
existent heart disease, a further reduction in saturated fat intake is
recommended.  The Food and Drug Administration is considering the
labeling
of foods for trans fatty acids.
The recommended intakes of salt (less than 6 grams per day, or 2,400
mg of
sodium) and dietary cholesterol (300 mg/day for healthy individuals,
and 200
mg per day in high-risk individuals) remain unchanged.  If an
individual
chooses to consume alcohol, the limit should be one drink a day for
women
and two drinks a day for men.  People who do not normally drink
alcohol
should not begin drinking.  The association still recommends that
individuals get their nutrients from foods, not supplements.
Diet helps prevent weight gain, obesity
"Americans are eating too many calories, and are not getting much
nutritional value from those calories," says Krauss.  "Although the
guidelines were developed to reduce or delay heart disease and stroke,
Americans who follow them could reap many other benefits.  Research
indicates these nutritional steps could also decrease the risk of
developing
cancer or osteoporosis."
For obese individuals, the guidelines recommend a gradual weight loss
of no
more than one to two pounds per week.  "Simply put, to lose weight,
you must
eat fewer calories than you burn and increase physical activity, such
as
brisk walking, to at least 30 minutes daily."
In addition, people consume many foods that are not "nutrient dense"
which
often have a lot of added sugars in them - for example sugary soft
drinks
and commercially baked goods.
"It is best if people reduce their caloric intake by following our
guidelines for healthy adults - a diet rich in fruits, vegetables,
low-fat
dairy products, and leaner cuts of meat eaten in smaller portions,"
says
Krauss.
Given the difficulty many people -- especially those between 25 and 45
years
-- experience in trying to maintain a weight loss over time, the
guidelines
recommend efforts to prevent weight gain in the first place.

-more-



Targeting high risk populations
The guidelines offer a framework to assist health care providers in
tailoring specific medical nutrition therapy to meet the needs of
individuals with high blood pressure, cholesterol disorders, diabetes,
insulin resistance, high triglycerides, congestive heart failure,
kidney
disease and/or obesity.
"For individuals with high blood pressure, losing just 5 percent to 10
percent of body weight is possible for many overweight individuals,
and that
modest amount of weight loss can significantly improve blood
pressure," says
Krauss.  "In addition, consuming a diet rich in fruits, vegetables,
low-fat
dairy products and limiting salt and alcohol has been shown in a large
study
to have major benefits in controlling blood pressure levels."
In recent years, scientists have been studying individuals who have a
cluster of metabolic risk factors for heart disease and/or stroke --
excessive fat tissue in the abdominal region, glucose intolerance or
diabetes, high blood pressure, and high levels of triglycerides (more
than
200 mg/dL).  This cluster of risk factors is sometimes called
"Syndrome X."
For individuals diagnosed with the syndrome, it may be desirable to
avoid
very low-fat, high carbohydrate diets, and to emphasize unsaturated
fats,
such as vegetable oils and seed oils (excluding tropical oils), rather
than
carbohydrates.  Very low-fat diets (less than 15-20 percent of total
calories from fat) with correspondingly high carbohydrate content can
lower
"good" cholesterol.
The guidelines also weigh in on high protein and other popular diet
strategies and note areas of study that need greater emphasis.  For
example,
there is little scientific evidence to support the concepts that high
protein diets result in significant changes in metabolism, sustained
weight
loss or improved health.
###



Others on the nutrition committee include: Robert H. Eckel, M.D.
(Chair,
Nutrition Committee); Barbara Howard, R.D., Ph.D. (Vice Chair,
Nutrition
Committee); Lawrence J. Appel M.D.; Stephen R. Daniels, M.D., Ph.D.;
Richard. J. Deckelbaum, M.D.; John W. Erdman, Jr., Ph.D.; Nancy D.
Ernst,
Ph.D., R.D.; Penny Kris-Etherton, Ph.D., R.D.; Ira J. Goldberg, M.D.;
Theodore A. Kotchen, M.D.; Alice H. Lichtenstein, D.Sc.; William E.
Mitch,
M.D.; Rebecca Mullis, Ph.D., R.D.; Killian Robinson, M.D.; Judith
Wylie-Rosett, Ed.D, R.D.; Sachiko St. Jeor, Ph.D., R.D.; John Suttie,
Ph.D.;
Diane L.Tribble, Ph.D.; and Terry L. Bazzarre, Ph.D.