Suggests Way to Improve Nutrition

Here are suggestions way to improve nutrition.

The Food Guide Advisory Committee, which consists of 13 nutrition experts, was charged with the recommendations contained in the government's planned upgrade of iconic food pyramid. The results: people should eat more vegetables and whole grains, meat and less fat, salt and sugar. The report aims to address widely regarded as a national epidemic of obesity.

Among the recommendations: Americans should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams a day of salt. Current guidelines recommend a maximum of 2,300 mg, equivalent to one teaspoon of salt, for the general population, and 1,500 milligrams for at-risk adults, such as those with high blood pressure. The panel recommended 1,500 mg for everyone.

The report also said children should be discouraged from drinking sugar-sweetened beverages and get more physical exercise and people generally should limit saturated fats to less than 7% of overall calorie intake.

The panel's recommendations are to be considered when the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services develop new national dietary guidelines to be released this year. Congress mandates that the guidelines be revised every five years.

The guidelines in turn will form the basis of the USDA's updated food pyramid, scheduled to be released in spring 2011. They also determine the nutrition standards for all federal nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program, which feeds more than 30 million children a day.