The new guidelines say that America’s overweight and obesity epidemic played a major role in developing the recommendations. The obesity epidemic carries a steep cost, the guidelines point out, increasing the risk of many chronic diseases, such as heart disease and cancer. Most are preventable. (For cancer, AICR estimates that over 1/3 of the most common cancers could be prevented if Americans ate healthy, exercised more, and stayed lean.)
A few of the guidelines’ take-home messages include:
• Enjoy your food, but eat less.
• Avoid oversized portions.
• Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
• Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk.
Overall, the guidelines support AICR’s recommendations for cancer prevention, which also emphasize the importance of staying a healthy weight and eating more plant foods.
So take a look at your plate. If you want to get started putting the guidelines into action tonight, try using AICR’s New American Plate approach.
There’s a lot in the guidelines; you can read all of it here. Stay tuned for more and let us know what you think about them.