Bend but don’t break: Official heart guidance becomes flexible
When rigid isn’t working, try flexibility. You’ve tried to follow the rules for eating the right foods and avoiding certain others. And how well has that worked? (Don’t answer.)
The American Heart Association has come up with a better idea. Instead of prescribing or banning specific foods, the organization’s new scientific statement lays out patterns to follow — general guidelines, if you will — for helping cut the risk of heart disease and stroke.
But more than that, this document, sort of a national heart owner’s manual, is intended to be flexible as well about its audience. That is, the association presents advice designed to be useful regardless of ethnic, religious and even personal preferences such as cooking styles.
Alice H. Lichtenstein, chairwoman of the group that came up with the new statement, said all Americans can benefit from a hearthealthy dietary pattern, regardless of what stage of life they’re in or what their lifestyle is or culture they are part of. She dismissed the very notion of an elaborate diet for one and all.
“It does not need to be complicated, time consuming, expensive or unappealing,” Lichtenstein, senior scientist and director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Team at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Boston’s Tufts University, said in a statement.
“You can absolutely adapt a heart-healthy diet to different lifestyles,” she added, “including one that incorporates eating out at restaurants.”
The heart health document released a few weeks before Thanksgiving is a first in two respects. Never before has the association been explicit about the influences that make it so hard for Americans to eat right. The association went as far as to advocate for public health changes like early nutrition education.
The statement’s other first has to do with a goal spreading across much of society these days: sustainability. It goes into how a proper diet actually helps the environment, too.
If you were hoping the new guidance was going to skip over exercise, forget it. Right off the bat the association calls for balancing food and calorie intake with physical activity. You knew it was coming.
Another primary piece of advice it offers is to eat a wide variety of food and vegetables, and ample amounts of them. That’s considered preferrable to getting the same nutrients from vitamins or other supplements.
It says to go with whole grains and to choose healthy sources of lean or high-fiber protein like nuts and beans, fish or other seafood and lean cuts of meat. It recommends limiting red and processed meats and opting for low fat or non-fat dairy.
Use liquid, non-tropical plant oils, it says, like sunflower or olive oils. And whenever possible, avoid high-processed foods that have been smoked, cured or received chemical preservatives. Such foods tend to be high in salt and cholesterol; replacing them with other proteins has been shown to lower death rates.
Foods and beverages with added sugars are to be minimized, unsurprisingly. Same with alcohol. The statement also encourages cooking foods with little or no salt.
The dangers are clear. The association said that without proper exercise or a healthy diet, Americans run the risk of developing high levels of “bad” cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity and Type 2 diabetes, any of which can lead to heart disease.
Lichtenstein said people in any life stage can benefit from the guidelines. With that in mind, she suggested teaching children about heart health, “so as they transition into adulthood, they will be able to make informed decisions about what they eat and serve as positive role models for generations to come.”
Delving further into advocacy, she noted some of the largest environmental impacts are caused by popular animal products, especially red meat. The implication is that eating a greater share of plant proteins like legumes can reduce human impacts on water resources and land use.
“It is important to recognize that the guidance is consistent not only with heart health but also sustainability,” she stated. “It is a winwin for individuals and our environment.”
In a similar vein, the association noted that communities with greater racial and ethnic diversity often have few grocery stores but many fast-food restaurants. It added that addressing those challenges and barriers will require public health action and policy changes.
A co-author of the statement, Maya Vadiveloo, an assistant professor in nutrition and food sciences at the University of Rhode Island at Kingston, told U.S. News & World Report that Americans’ shift to more frequent dining out helps explain why Americans have moved toward a less heart-healthy diet.
Her advice was to make small changes, like switching from white bread to whole wheat.
“Maybe one meal a week you’re using beans for your protein source, or maybe one time you’re switching a processed meat for fish.”