new nutrition draft guidelines

There are new draft nutrition guidelines from the US Dept of Health and Human Services and the Dept of Agriculture (see http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-BINDER/meeting7/docs/DGAC-Meeting-7-SC-1.pdf ). no huge changes, other than the comment "cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption". other points:

--vitamin D, calcium, potassium and fiber are underconsumed across the entire US population

--iron is underconsumed for adolescent and premenopausal females

--sodium is overconsumed across the entire US population

--saturated fat is overconsumed and may pose the greatest risk to those > 50 years old

--caffeine intake does not exceed what are currently considered safe levels for any age group

--fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy foods are under recommended goals for vast majority of US population. fruit intake is low but stable from 2001-2010, vegetables have declined.

--refined grains, solid fats, and added sugars are more consumed than recommended. added sugars have decreased a bit from 2001-2010

--young kids consume recommended amounts of fruit and dairy, but this drops off as kids reach school age

--rates of overweight and obesity are extremely high and have persisted for more than 25 years in children, adolescents and adults

    --65% of adult females and 70% of adult males are overweight or obese    --rates of overweight and obese are highest in those >40yo, and vary by race/ethnicity    --same is true for abdominal obesity    --1 in 3 youth aged 2-19 is overweight or obese

    --of note,from 2009-2012 the percent of males >20yo who are overweight, obese, and extremely obese has declined a tad. for women, these are still slowly increasing

comments:

--cholesterol: it has long been known that the hypercholesterolemic effect (ie, increase in serum cholesterol) of eating cholesterol is about 1/3 that of eating saturated fats and about 1/9 of that of eating trans fats. several very large observational studies have not found that eating foods high in cholesterol is much of a cardiovascular risk factor. also, as a perspective, only a small minority of circulating cholesterol (about 20%) is from diet, most is from genes....
--saturated fats: there are some recent data that, in terms of cardiac outcomes, plant-derived saturated fats are much better than animal-derived ones
--trans fats: the worst. finally, there are significant public health initiatives to decrease their use.
--sodium: for IOM (institute of medicine) report on sodium intake (which proposes a less-aggressive approach, but still targets much lower than current consumption), see blog http://gmodestmedblogs.blogspot.com/2013/11/dietary-sodium-and-disease.html 
--potassium: see appended blog below from 4/22/13. seems like this is a really important clinical target for intervention.

--caffeine: good news that we don't have to cut back....