The US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture publish new Dietary Guidelines every five years to provide nutritional advice for Americans. They are intended for policymakers, nutritionists, and medical professionals to educate the public and enact nutrition-based legislation. They also serve as a basis for healthcare professionals to give proper diet and nutrition advice to their patients.
The Dietary Guidelines are nutritional advice for Americans provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Every five years, these agencies publish a new set of guidelines on which foods decrease the chance of disease and benefit personal health. Government-sponsored diet and exercise educational programs use these guidelines as their primary source for determining the focus of their programs.
All Americans two years of age and older can use the dietary guidelines. They are specifically intended for an American audience due to the country’s high rate of obesity, which is believed to be caused by an unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity. These guidelines are also the basis for nutrition information on food packaging, which shows what percentages of fat, calories, and other nutrients a particular food contains. Not only do they describe the recommended intake of calories, fat, and cholesterol for American age groups, but they also list the specific disease risks of not following the guidelines. These diseases include heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even cancer.
The guidelines also serve as a way to report new or ongoing concerns that researchers have found with the American diet. This may include findings about which key nutrients they were lacking, such as calcium, fiber, and potassium. They also break down nutritional deficiencies found in specific age and other population groups, and give recommendations on how to add the right vitamins and nutrients to their diets.
In general, the dietary guidelines are not published for the average American to read. Instead, they are intended for federal policymakers, nutritionists, and medical professionals as a scientific basis for educating the public. The federal government uses them to decide what topics to focus on in nutrition education programs in schools, or to enact nutrition-based legislation. For example, the government used these guidelines to decide that food must contain less than 3 grams of fat per serving to be advertised as low-fat.
Nutritionists and medical professionals use the Dietary Guidelines to give proper diet and nutrition advice to their patients. These guidelines are used as a way to keep all healthcare professionals on the same track about what constitutes a healthy diet so Americans don’t get conflicting health information. They also provide up-to-date research to use as the basis for dietary recommendations to patients because guidelines are subject to change every five years.
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