Diet has always played a vital role in supporting health. Today, over consumption of foods especially those high in fat is a major concern for people in the United States. When we look at the ten leading causes of illness and death in the United States, the top categories are heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. Diet influences the development of the chronic diseases.
Taken together, these four diseases account for about two-thirds of the nations 2 million deaths each year. These causes are stated as if single conditions such as heart disease caused death, but most chronic diseases arise from multiple factors over many years. A person who died from heart failure may have had preexisting conditions, such as obesity and high blood pressure, may have been a cigarette smoker, may have spent years eating a high-fat diet and getting too little exercise. Today, there is a growing awareness that the food you eat affects your health and your whole life. However, according to a new survey, Americans today recognize that they do not need to sacrifice taste to eat right.
Rather, they can enjoy their favorite foods in a way that combines the basic tenets of a healthy diet: balance, variety and moderation. People can continue to eat their favorite foods, even if they are high in fat, salt or sugars, but remember to moderate their portion size and frequency. In comparing the findings with a similar survey conducted in 1990, Americans continue to be very concerned about good Nutrition Essay and want sound information on healthy eating. Their interest in diet and health continues at a fairly high level. Despite consumers positive attitude toward good nutrition, some misconceptions continue to prevail. As in the 1990 survey, two-thirds of Americans believe there are good and bad diets.
Any food can fit into a healthy way of eating. The key is to balance your food choices over time so that your overall diet is sound. For example, when you eat a higher-fat food, cut back on the fat in the next meal or snack. Consumers are also confused about the fat content of individual foods and their overall diet. Seven out of ten respondents believe that foods should contain 30 percent or less calories from dietary fats. Americans appear to be incorrectly applying the figure of 30 percent of calories to individual foods, rather than to the total diet.
A diet with this percent of calories from fat can contain both lower-fat and higher-fat foods. What matters is not how much fat is in each food but how much fat you can eat over the course of a day or several days. These misconceptions tell us that consumers need further guidance in balancing individual food over time to create sound eating patterns, said Sara C. Parks, RD, President of the American Dietetic Association (ADA).
People need to be shown that foods are not good or bad. . . .
and that ones overall diet, not individual foods, should contain 30 percent or less of calories from fat. One of our goals is to help consumers understand how all foods can fit into their overall eating style. Where do consumers look for information about diet and health? As in the 1990 findings, the media is cited as the primary source of food and nutrition information for the general public. The most popular sources include magazine articles, newspaper reports, and television broadcasts. A small percentage of people further seek nutrition advice from health professional. Many consumers want to eat less fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, more complex carbohydrates, and dietary fibers.
Until recently, however, grocery shoppers found foods without nutrition labels or labels without enough useful information. The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 brought sweeping changes to the regulations that define what is required on the food labels. The new requirements were designed so that the labels would provide consumers with useful information about the food they eat, and especially about how individual foods fit into their daily diets. Labels are valuable only if people know how to use them, and so the labeling law contains an educational component.
Consumers who understand how to read labels will be best able to apply the information .
