New Dietary Guidelines — What You Need to Know

Intro: This is Weekly Dose of Wellness brought to you by MemorialCare Health System. Here's Deborah Howell.

Deborah Howell (Host): And welcome to the show. I am Deborah Howell. Today we'll be talking about the new dietary guidelines that came out recently and see how they might fit into our lives. Our guest is Shannon Libbrecht, coordinator of Clinical Nutrition Services at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, and she's here to tell us what we need to know about the new dietary guidelines and how to help us make healthy choices. Welcome, Shannon.

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: Good morning, thank you.

Deborah Howell (Host): So tell us all about the new dietary guidelines. What can't we eat now?

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: Well, the dietary guidelines, just to give you a little insight of the purpose and what they are, they are basically a compiled evidence-based nutrition recommendations and they are put out every five years to review the literature. The purpose is to promote health, prevent chronic disease, since that's a major issue, and the strong links between healthy eating patterns to a lower risk for obesity, heart disease, hypertension, cancers, diabetes makes it a really important focus for nutrition education. So we're actively using the guidelines to get the message out and promote healthy eating for Americans.

Deborah Howell (Host): Good for you, we need to do that. What are eating patterns and why does the 2015 through 2020 dietary guidelines focus so much on them?

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: Great. So the eating patterns consist of pretty much everything you eat. Looking at your whole diet as far as teaching purposes, I like that they focus on eating patterns because it's a flexible way of thinking about a diet. It can be adjusted for individual preferences and beliefs and it doesn't single out food. So everything can be fit into a healthy eating pattern, but special attention to frequency and amounts. So when they talk about healthy eating patterns and the evidence that supports what a healthy eating pattern looks like, this is a diet that's rich in vegetables, fruit, whole grains, fish, seafood, beans, nuts, seeds, all your plant-based foods, and then smaller amounts of dairy, alcohol, eating less amounts of red and processed meats, and then a special attention to reducing to small amounts of sugary sweetened foods and drinks and then refined grains. So that's what the dietary guidelines are all about and how to kind of carry that out into your diet.

Deborah Howell (Host): Sounds good. And what are a few small changes that everybody can make to their diet that will make a big impact on their health?

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: Great question. I'm all about making small changes and just increasing your awareness and intention of what you're doing. If I would have to just throw out some general things to get someone started, looking at increasing your plant-based eating. So if that's increasing more fruits and vegetables for you, look at your plate. Half of your plate should be fruits and vegetables. Try new ones, get a variety of things, get creative. Another option would be focus on eating less meat and cheese. Maybe swap out an animal-based protein choice for fish, beans, or lentils a couple times a week. And another big one, a healthy shift that's talked about in the dietary guidelines, is looking at what you're drinking and focusing on water and reducing some of those added sugar beverages or sugary beverages that we're drinking quite a bit of, like sodas or those sweetened coffees or things like that.

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay. And how about serving sizes? Are they important?

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: Yes. So very important. Calorie balance and maintaining a healthy weight are very key in promoting health and preventing chronic diseases. And overeating, especially with having a little bit more of multiple serving sizes or bigger portion sizes than we're supposed to, especially in those dairy, protein, fat food groups, that can increase the calories in your diet very quickly.

Deborah Howell (Host): You said protein, so I'm assuming you're talking about maybe a steak would be very high calorie.

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: Right. So if you're having too much of that at one time, you know, a little bit of meat as your protein choice in a healthy portion is fine, but when you eat large amounts of protein, that can actually negatively affect your diet and your health.

Deborah Howell (Host): Interesting, I had not heard that. What is MyPlate?

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: So MyPlate, you may have seen it, but it's a simple visual guide that helps focus on variety, portions, and healthy food choices. So what it looks like is it's basically like a lunch-size plate, so smaller, smaller plate, and half of the plate has an infographic that's showing fruits and vegetables to remind you that half your plate should look like this type of plate. So half is fruits and vegetables. A quarter is picking from your whole grains. So whole grains are like oats, brown rice, whole grain bread, pasta, quinoa, sweet potatoes, corn, peas. Those types of starchy vegetables are whole grains. And then a quarter of your plate would be a protein choice, whether it's lean meats, fish, beans, nut seeds. And then on the side of the plate, there's a small serving of a dairy or dairy substitute on the side. So it's an easy way to learn how to eat a little bit healthier, how to incorporate some changes, and it's quick to remember because it's very visual of what you can replicate in daily life.

Deborah Howell (Host): Yeah, it's powerful, it's already seared into my brain that half my plate needs to be fruit and vegetables. That's good. So okay, here's the biggie. Is caffeine okay to include in our day?

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: Yes. Well, all our busy people, yes. Up to in the guidelines, they did say up to 400 milligrams per day is safe. So that's about two to five cups depending on the strength of the coffee or caffeine drinks that you're drinking. So watch out for that. They do usually list the caffeine in milligrams on the products you're eating or you can get it from the companies that you're buying from. So about 400 milligrams. Although, a lot of these drinks, especially if they're like the energy drinks or the coffee drinks or sodas, there's a lot of sugar that can be added and maybe fat and calories, so watch out for those. But caffeine alone is safe, yes.

Deborah Howell (Host): Let's compare tea, I'm drinking green tea as we speak, to coffee in terms of amount of caffeine.

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: Right, so great question. So tea is usually around 80 milligrams. If you're home brewing coffee, that's probably around 120, 150 milligrams. But if you're going to buy it at a local coffee shop, depending on where you're going, the amount of caffeine in those could be up to 200, 300 milligrams for the same size of coffee. So if you're getting the Venti or the bigger sizes, that could even be double. So that's why we kind of say, you know, two to five drinks because depending how strong that caffeine cup is.

Deborah Howell (Host): Sure, sure. Okay, but so, you know, maybe two-thirds of the caffeine in a cup of tea as there is in coffee?

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: Mm-hmm.

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay. What are considered processed meats and why is it recommended to avoid them?

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: So your processed meats are meats that have been smoked, cured, or have added nitrates or salts to them. And you can usually see that on the ingredients list or advertise as being smoked or this and that, so you'll know it's processed that way. Examples would be ham, pastrami, a lot of the deli meats that are processed of being, you know, cured or added nitrates, bologna, bacon, sausage, hot dogs, corned beef, and pepperoni. Now these...

Deborah Howell (Host): Oh, sad, sausage and bacon.

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: Yeah, I'm glad to get this message out because I think this is something that doesn't get a lot of, you know, not really widely publicized because we love these foods so much. But they are actually carcinogens. They can raise your risk for cancers. So we should be limiting how much red meat and processed meats to reduce cancer risk, especially colon cancer.

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay, you've got the word, ladies and gentlemen, no more excuses. At least, at least minimize it. You don't, maybe not have to give it up all together, right?

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: Exactly.

Deborah Howell (Host): Where can people go to get more information?

Shannon Libbrecht, RD: So for more information you can go to choosemyplate.gov. That has a lot of resources for the public to look at for healthy eating styles, even physical activity, which is another important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Deborah Howell (Host): Choosemyplate.org, I'm going there as soon as we hang up. Thank you so much, Shannon, for your time today, we do really appreciate it. For more information or to listen to a podcast of this show, please go to memorialcare.org. That's all for this time. I'm Deborah Howell, thanks for listening and have yourself a great day.