Modeling the Impact of Fat Flexibility With Dairy Food Servings in the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Healthy U.S.-Style Eating Pattern

Abstract

Background: The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) recommends consuming low-fat or fat-free dairy foods due to concerns about energy and saturated fat intake. It also recommends consuming no more than 10% of daily calories from saturated fat. Objective: The objective was to assess the impact of replacing one serving of fat-free dairy foods in the Healthy U.S.-Style Eating Pattern (HUSEP) from the DGA with one serving of whole-or reduced-fat dairy foods. We hypothesized that this replacement would keep the HUSEP within calorie, saturated fat, and sodium limits. Methods: Utilizing the same modeling procedures as the 2015-2020 DGA, we assessed the nutrient composition of seven alternative models of the 2000-calorie HUSEP. These models replaced all three servings of dairy foods in the HUSEP with an updated fat-free dairy composite (Model 1) or one of three fat-free dairy servings in the HUSEP with: a whole-fat dairy food composite, a reduced-fat/low-fat dairy food composite, whole milk, reduced-fat milk, whole-fat cheese, or reduced-fat cheese (Models 2-7). Results: In all models, the amount of saturated fat did not exceed 10% of total calories, but the amount of energy increased by 45-94 calories. While still lower than current average intake (3,440 mg/d), sodium amounts in four of the seven models exceeded the 2,300 mg/d recommended intake level. Conclusions: Some reduced-and whole-fat dairy foods, especially milk, can fit into calorie-balanced healthy eating patterns that also align with saturated fat recommendations. Allowing some flexibility in fat level of dairy food servings aligns with the recommendations that calories from solid fats and added sugars are best used to increase the palatability of nutrient-dense foods.

The New Hybrid Nutrient Density Score NRFh 4:3:3 Tested in Relation to Affordable Nutrient Density and Healthy Eating Index 2015: Analyses of NHANES Data 2013–16

“…All foods and beverages that were available for NRF replacement modeling [23][24][25][26] were identified in the individual foods data file in the NHANES 2013-16. First, tertile cut-points for both NRF scores (NRF9.3 and NRFh 4:3:3) were based on food categories as identified by What We Eat in America codes and were population-specific, given the diversity of dietary patterns across population strata.…”

Protective effects of oleic acid and polyphenols in extra virgin olive oil on cardiovascular diseases

“…The MD was first proposed by Ancel Keys in the 1950s after studied the diets and health conditions of seven countries [7] . It was recommended to be adopted in 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans as one of the important measures against CVDs [8,9] . One of the core features of the MD that differs from other dietary patterns is its special source of fat --OO.…”