As a nutritionally minded woman, I like to keep abreast of the changes in the USDA Dietary Guidelines. The recommendations are updated every 5 years. In 2010 there were a lot of changes, and this year there are a few more. The most astonishing change this year, is that dietary Cholesterol, like the kind found in eggs and red meat, is no longer limited to 300mg a day. In fact, the report specifically states that “Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.” The entire quote appears below.
Cholesterol. Previously, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommended that cholesterol intake be limited to no more than 300 mg/day. The 2015 DGAC will not bring forward this recommendation because available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol, consistent with the conclusions of the AHA/ACC report. Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.
You can find the quote online HERE, about 2/3 of the way down the page.
I am still amazed that after so many years of villainizing dietary cholesterol, it is no longer a nutrient of concern. My doctor has been recommending that I avoid egg yolks for 25 years, and now I guess I no longer have to. I have never been quite convinced that egg yolks are such a bad thing, but last year, and this year, I made an extreme effort to avoid them. My intention was to get my cholesterol down as far as I could. Now I guess I don’t have to anymore, because they apparently have very little affect on my cholesterol levels.
I still don’t know what to think about it.
In other news, my youngest son has now graduated homeschool and is planning to take a year off from school, to earn some cash for college. I wish hubby and I could help him out more financially, but if he wants college, he’ll have to start working to pay for it. So yay! for graduating, and boo! for the economic necessity of working to have enough money (even with financial aid) to be able to afford the education he wants. Welcome, my son, to the adult world.
Additionally, I have added PDF documents of the High Carb and High Protein daily exchange plans at various calorie levels (1000, 1200, 1400, 1600 & 2000). It’s tedious to do all the graph work, but they seem to have turned out well. You can find the PDF’s on the Exchange Plan Diet page.
I’m curious, will anyone else be changing the way they eat, in regards to beef or eggs, now that the dietary guidelines have changed? I notice that the DASH diet still recommends egg whites over whole eggs. Will they change now that the USDA dietary guidelines have changed? I’m really interested to watch how this changes the nutritional landscape.
6 Responses to “Changes in USDA Dietary Guidelines for 2015”
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Hubby is Finnish and they have notoriously bad genes for cholesterol. I make us scrambled eggs with 5 egg whites and just 1 or 2 yolks for flavor/color. He hasn’t really noticed lol :). Eggs are thankfully pretty cheap here so we eat mostly whites about 2 times a week.
Hi Chava. I often do the same thing. 1-cup egg whites and 1-whole egg for 4-servings of scrambled eggs. My family can tell the difference, but they don’t mind because they still taste good. High cholesterol runs in my family too, so I know it’s an ongoing struggle. With eggs so cheap right now, we too eat them regularly. They are great protein and really good price. Now that it’s confirmed by the USDA that dietary cholesterol is not as bad as they thought, I will be freer with my use of whole eggs. But I will probably chat with my nurse practitioner before I go whole-hog on an egg yolk binge.
I’m so happy for you that eggs are so economical in your areas. We have been buying eggs at Aldi for several years and they’ve always been good and just a little over a $ per dozen. My hubby went to Aldi last week to buy eggs for me and they had gone up to $2.29 per dz. for large eggs (the only size Aldi carries). My husband picked up the 3 dz. I’d requested and asked the checker why the sudden jump in price. “Haven’t you heard?” she asked. “Eggs are going up to $4.oo per dz. in the regular grocery store.” Well, there goes one more economical basic food down the drain. Or should I say Up the ladder?
I researched the nutrition in eggs many years ago, and I learned about 90% of the level of cholesterol a person packs (both good and bad) is genetic. Also eggs have an abundant supply of lecithin (a natural emulsifier) that in most people will keep the cholesterol from clumping and sticking to artery walls. Guess our Maker even has that under control. It’s mostly smoking, huge amounts of flesh proteins, lack of exercise, alcohol, few fresh produce and whole grains that do the body so much damage. I know—I’ve gone from preaching to meddling.
So glad to hear from you, Maggie. Miss you when you’re gone for a while. But I know as wives, mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers, our time is never really our own.
Frankie
Preach it sister! We’ve got to share what we’ve learned with the next generations, just like our own mentors shared with us. I’ve seen eggs rise the past couple of months, but they’ve come down again and leveled out a bit too. Higher than they used to be but lower than they were for a few weeks. I use so many eggs in gluten free baking that when they’re too high priced it makes me cut down a lot on the baked goods. There are some vegan, gluten-free, egg-free baking recipes out there, but most of them don’t have the same texture that I’ve become accustomed to, so I kind of avoid them for the most part. That’s a food prejudice on my part and if eggs get too high again, I’ll be forced to overcome it.
You are so right about our time not being our own. As the school year starts again soon, my schedule will be more steady and my updates less sporadic.
Preach it sister! We’ve got to share what we’ve learned with the next generations, just like our own mentors shared with us. I’ve seen eggs rise the past couple of months, but they’ve come down again and leveled out a bit too. Higher than they used to be but lower than they were for a few weeks. I use so many eggs in gluten free baking that when they’re too high priced it makes me cut down a lot on the baked goods. There are some vegan, gluten-free, egg-free baking recipes out there, but most of them don’t have the same texture that I’ve become accustomed to, so I kind of avoid them for the most part. That’s a food prejudice on my part and if eggs get too high again, I’ll be forced to overcome it.
You are so right about our time not being our own. As the school year starts again soon, my schedule will be more steady and my updates less sporadic.
$4 a dozen? Yikes! Eggs have been 2.29 & up a dozen for years here (Canada), I think they’ve even creeped up to $2.50 as the absolute cheapest, usually Superstore or Costco. Try asking around though, my husband buys our eggs from a guy he works with, his wife has a “side hobby” of chickens on their acreage just outside of town. We buy them for $1.75 a dozen, home-grown! As a result, we eat our way through 6 DOZEN eggs a week (eating, cooking, baking, etc) for our family of 6 (2 adults, kiddos ranging from 9 months to 9 years)! At 15 cents a serving, it’s hard to find animal protein for so little.