Diet Experts Tell Fat U.S.–Turn Off TV, Eat Smart

Increasingly overweight Americans should turn off the TV, get some exercise and eat “a wide variety of foods,” a panel of dietary experts said on Wednesday, giving a cold shoulder to the craze for high-protein diets.

Increasingly overweight Americans should turn off the TV, get some exercise and eat “a wide variety of foods,” a panel of dietary experts said on Wednesday, giving a cold shoulder to the craze for high-protein diets. The 13-member panel, commissioned to update the Dietary Guidelines for Americans — the government’s tipsheet for healthful eating — said Americans need to balance food intake with their activity level to avoid gaining weight. Two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight and childhood obesity is ballooning. Poor diet and physical inactivity, blamed for 400,000 deaths a year, may soon overtake smoking as the No. 1 cause of preventable death. At a session called to wrap up their suggestions for the new edition of the guidelines, panelists agreed “a wide variety of foods,” including fruits, vegetables, grains, milk products and meat and other proteins, “contribute to meeting nutrient recommendations.” After assessing nutrition research, the advisory committee planned to write its version of the new guidelines on Thursday. Chairwoman Janet King, who is senior scientist at Oakland Childrens Hospital Research Institute, said another meeting would be called if consensus was elusive. The new guidelines are due for release in January. “During leisure time, all individuals, especially children and adolescents, should limit their sedentary behaviors, such as TV watching and video viewing,” the panel said. Adults need “30 minutes of at least moderate physical activity most days,” it said in a so-called conclusive statement. Many adults need 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity for good health and to avoid weight gain. “We thought that was important … to talk about people becoming less sedentary,” said panelist Xavier Pi-Sunyer, an obesity researcher at Columbia University. Americans tend to spend leisure time sitting around, added Benjamin Caballero, a nutrition professor at Johns Hopkins. Committee members were deadlocked whether sugar-sweetened beverages were to blame for weight gain, despite agreeing there was strong documentation that people who consume foods or beverages high in added sugars consume more calories than people who consume low amounts of added sugar. “I would feel more comfortable without targeting an individual food,” said panelist Theresa Nicklas, of the Baylor College of Medicine, Carlos Camargo, of the Harvard Medical School, argued three studies clearly showed that obesity rates went up as children drank more and more sugary drinks. “I read these papers. I find them suggestive,” said Camargo, citing his expertise as an epidemiologist. The panel agreed to study the issue overnight. Under the draft presented to the committee, the current set of 10 guidelines would be slimmed down to seven, putting more emphasis on eating fruits and vegetables and balancing food consumption with exercise. The draft language “is not as straight forward as I think it needs to be,” said Margo Wootan, nutrition policy director for activist group Center for Science in the Public Interest. “You have to cut calories, too.” The panel’s work is also being closely watched by farm and food industry groups. Foodmakers say it would be unfair to target any foods as “bad” and that eating is an individual choice by consumers. Food activists want plain talking about foods larded with fats, sugars and salt. The last time the government updated the guidelines in 2000, it urged Americans to be physically active every day, to eat a variety of grains, fruits and vegetables daily, and to control fat, sugar and salt intake. The revision of the guidelines is overseen by both the U.S. Agriculture Department, which promotes farm products, and the Department of Health and Human Services. (Source: Reuters Health News, May 2004)