Latest Dietary Advice: Fat Isn’t All That Bad; Sugar Is

The latest advisory from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which convenes every five years, has some good news and some bad news. First the good news, which isn’t all that good. As Anahad O’Connor reports in the New York Times, the panel dropped a suggestion from the previous guidelines that Americans restrict their total fat intake to 35 percent of their daily calories. Why? Because, O’Connor reports, a decades-old emphasis on low-fat diets prompted an explosion of processed foods stripped of fat and loaded with sugar, and studies show that replacing fat with refined carbohydrates like bread, rice and sugar can actually worsen cardiovascular health. And now the bad news, which isn’t all that bad, or all that surprising: sugar is the devil. And a very popular devil at that. The Times reports that Americans consume 22 to 30 teaspoons of added sugar daily, half of which come from soda, juices and other sugary drinks. How much sugar should be eating? The panel recommends a limit of 12 teaspoons a day– or roughly 10 percent of daily calories for most adults.