What to eat and what not to eat, according to the new FDA Dietary Guidelines

#health_above_all_nutrition

The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are out and if you want some help in making sense of the most current recommendations, we’ll unpack it all here.

The overall key message to Americans is to “make every bite count.”

How? This means that you should eat and drink foods and beverages that have nutritional oomph, meaning they are nutritionally dense and power packed with the good stuff your body needs, without an excessive number of calories. Calorie for calorie, they give you plenty of nutrients your body needs.

Some examples are oily fish, like salmon, which are high in omega 3s; whole grains, like lupin and quinoa which are packed with fiber, protein and plenty of vitamins and minerals; and chia or flax seeds, which are jam packed with fiber, omega 3s and plenty of vitamins and minerals.

The guidelines suggest eating about 85% of your calories from nutrient rich foods like these and the remaining 15% are the “fun foods”, foods high in added sugars and fat, like baked goods, and alcohol.

The newest guidelines also recognize that nutrient needs change throughout our lifespan. For the first time, they provide recommendations for each stage of life, from infancy to elderly, including pregnancy and lactation. They recommend limiting sugars, saturated fat and sodium intake, as well as alcoholic beverages.

So, bottom line…. Healthy happens over time. One food or occasional splurge does not blow up your health goals. Choose a variety of nutrient dense foods that fit into the recommendations for your age group, limit added sugars, fats and alcohol, and be mindful of portion sizes.

Look to companies, like Carrington Farms, that strive for only the highest quality ingredients in all their products. Make these guidelines your own by choosing the quality foods you enjoy from the companies you trust. The rest is up to you- it’s your body. You know best how you would like to “make every bite count.”