A nutrition advisory panel that helps shape the country’s official dietary guidelines on Thursday eased some of its previous restrictions on fat and cholesterol, and recommended sharp new limits on the amount of added sugars that Americans should consume.
The US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which convenes every five years, said that Americans were eating too much salt, sugar and saturated fat, and not enough foods that fall into a “healthy dietary pattern,” like fruit, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and fish. Members of the panel said they wanted Americans to focus less on individual nutrients and more on overall patterns of eating, such as a Mediterranean-style diet, which is associated with lower disease rates.
However, the panel did single out added sugars as an area of concern. Previous dietary guidelines have included warnings about eating too many added sugars, but for the first time the panel recommended that Americans limit them to no more than 10 percent of daily calories — roughly 12 teaspoons a day for many adults — because of their link to obesity and chronic disease.
Americans typically consume between 22 and 30 teaspoons of added sugars daily, half of which come from soda, juices and other sugary drinks. The panel said it supported a rule proposed by the US Food and Drug Administration that would require a distinct line for added sugars on food nutrition labels, a change the food and sugar industries have fought aggressively.
Many experts, including some who disagreed with the panel’s advice on salt and saturated fat, applauded its stronger stance on added sugars.
“That was one of the high points of these guidelines — and something that was sorely needed,” said Ronald Krauss, the director of atherosclerosis research at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute. “There is a striking excess of added sugar intake in all age groups across the population.”
Krauss, former chairman of the American Heart Association’s dietary guidelines committee, said that the advisory panel’s emphasis on overall dietary patterns was “a tremendous move in the right direction.”
As part of that move the panel dropped a suggestion from the previous guidelines that Americans should limit their total fat intake to 35 percent of their daily calories.
Since they were first issued in 1980, the guidelines have largely encouraged people to follow a low-fat diet, which sparked an explosion of processed foods stripped of fat and loaded with sugar and refined carbohydrates. Studies now show that replacing fat with refined carbohydrates like bread, rice and cereal may actually worsen cardiovascular health, so the guidelines now encourage Americans to focus not on the amount of fat that they are eating, but on the type.
The guidelines advise people to eat unsaturated fat — the kind found in fish, nuts and vegetable oils — in place of saturated fat, which occurs naturally in animal foods.
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
RSS