New suggestion alleviates some of the guilt

By Melissa Williams
The Associated Press

DALLAS — So you didn’t eat your vegetables yesterday and you
really overdid it with the double-chocolate cake. Don’t torture
yourself with guilt. Just try to do better in the next few
days.

That recommendation comes from the American Heart Association,
which has issued reduced-guilt guidelines aimed at getting people
to eat right over several days or a week, instead of obsessing over
every day or every meal.

The guidelines don’t change the recommended maximum levels of
calories, fat and cholesterol in people’s overall diet.

But for the first time, the guidelines cut people a little
slack, allowing them to be gluttonous one day, if they eat less the
rest of the week.

"This fits the theme of consuming a variety of foods and
reducing guilt from eating something ‘bad’ now and then," said Dr.
Ronald Krauss, chairman of a committee that developed the revamped
guidelines.

"It’s fairly clear now that the changes we associate with heart
disease risk do represent more of a long-term trend rather than
changes that occur with any given meal."

These are the first changes since 1988 in the heart association
guidelines, which were first published in 1961.

In the past, the association recommended daily levels for such
things as calories and fat, without suggesting that the levels
could be a daily average over a week’s time. The change was made to
alleviate frustration among people who felt meeting the guidelines
every day was unrealistic.

Bernadette Latson, a dietitian at the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, said the idea of meeting
nutritional goals over a week’s time is already advanced by many
dietitians.

"Getting an overall balance is what’s really important," she
said.

Robert Ricci, 28, a sales engineer in Dallas, said he figured
that out for himself. Ricci usually eats a low-fat, high-fiber diet
heavy on foods like raisin bran and baked potatoes.

"If I go to the El Fenix restaurant and get the Wednesday
special, which is very good but very bad cheese enchiladas, it’s
all right once in a while," said Ricci, who was eating a fat-free
brownie after a chicken sandwich for lunch Monday.

The guidelines, developed by the heart association’s nutrition
committee, were published in Monday’s issue of the association’s
journal Circulation.

The overall goal remains reducing the risk of heart disease,
with a new focus on obesity, whose growing incidence troubles
researchers.

Krauss said the public appears to have gotten the message on
reducing fat and cholesterol but not the importance of maintaining
a healthy weight.

A survey taken in January by Louis Harris and Associates
indicated that 74 percent of Americans 25 or older are overweight,
up from 71 percent a year ago and only 59 percent 10 years ago.

The updated guidelines recommend that people avoid foods high in
sugar and limit daily sodium intake to 6 grams, the equivalent of
about a teaspoon of table salt. That’s down from about 1 1/2
teaspoons.

"It’s fairly clear now that the changes we associate with heart
disease risk do represent more of a long-term trend rather than
changes that occur with any given meal."

Dr. Ronald Krauss
American Heart Association