Health experts are weighing in on the new dietary guidelines released by the federal government.

Our Christine spoke to a weight management and bariatric surgery specialist about what's different in the new guidelines that could affect your health.

More about this and today's medical news.

Okay, the new guidelines are out and it says it's simple eat real food.

Eat real.

Food.

What does that mean?

Yeah, I think it means, you know, if it's a food that you recognize as a whole product that not has not been, you know, heavily manipulated by industry, then it's a whole real food.

We're looking at fruits, vegetables, beans, seeds, nuts, animal proteins, those types of things.

Okay.

And the new federal guidelines, they've switched the food pyramid upside down from the one that a lot of us remember from, you know, the 90s.

Sure.

And, what surprised you about these new guidelines?

And what do you agree with?

Yeah.

So I think what surprised me is that at the very top left corner, we're seeing a great big old steak.

We do know that red meat is, inflammatory.

So I wouldn't recommend anyone eat it every single day.

And also, we have a lot of excellent protein that comes from plant foods.

And I'm not really seeing those in the protein area of the new pyramid either.

So what foods would those be?

The plant.

Yeah.

So soy, for example.

Soybeans.

Amazing.

You know, you can get them dried and roasted.

It's tofu.

And then most vegetables have a degree of, protein in it as well.

Okay.

Yeah.

And so also in these guidelines, they say that, saturated fat to still try to stay below 10% of your daily calories in saturated fat, which is good.

The new recommendations are consistent with the previous recommendations that, we need to be keeping our overall, daily intake of saturated fat below 10%.

And I absolutely agree with that.

So it can be confusing the public facing part of it makes it seem like we're encouraging people to eat a lot more saturated fat.

But the evidence, the science behind it.

And, in the health care space, we would still like people to stay.

Consistent with the actual recommendations, that fine print of less than 10% saturated fat in their diet.

But also for the dairy part, they said full fat dairy.

Yeah.

Does that mean no more skim milk?

What have we been drinking?

Skim milk for no reason?

No.

I mean, and certainly if you, enjoy skim milk, continue to drink it.

Absolutely.

But the evidence is showing that maybe full fat dairy isn't as bad as we once thought.

And usually there's three ingredients that are kind of played with when it comes to foods.

Okay.

And that's, salt, sugar and fat.

So if something is low fat, typically the salt and sugar have been altered, to make it more palatable.

You know, little yummier for us.

So we like it.

And so reading food labels remains an important part of just being a human being in this kind of modern food space.

So I would encourage people to still read those labels.

If it's says that it's, you know, low fat and you like it, you know, look to see is there added sugar there, has the sole been increas contradictory to your goals?

Okay.

Well, you mentioned added sugar.

That's also a big part of this really eliminating even or, avoiding altogether any added sugar that's really hard to do.

It's hard nowadays.

Yes.

Our food supply is a very large percentage of ultra processed foods, and that's something I really appreciate about the new guidelines.

They are saying please limit ultra processed foods.

Excess sugar is really just not good for us.

It is inflammatory.

We are we have very high rates of obesity, overweight, diabetes, heart disease and and sugar's a big player there.

It's a great treat.

And, again, I mean, I ate plenty of cookies over Christmas, and then got back on track.

Right.

Because my day to day life is I'm trying to optimize my health.

I really want to fuel my body well with good, whole real foods, just as the guidelines say, and try to keep those ultra processed things that are going to be harmful to my health.

Kind of out of the way.

So if it is, coming in a box or a bag and it is just absolutely not even close to something that looks like it came from nature, it's probably not something that's going to serve you incredibly well.

Now there are things like protein shakes, protein bars, and those are great, you know, to supplement here and there and whatnot.

We have busy lives.

We appreciate convenience foods.

But I would still say read those food labels.

This is not something that should be a staple in your diet as much as possible.

I would love to see people sticking with whole real foods, really prioritizing, fruits and vegetables.

95% of the average population is not getting enough fiber.

And that's a big player when it comes to the health of our microbiome, and weight management.

Okay.

Well, Jen Truman from Norton Health Care, thank you so much for breaking this down.

This is great advice.

Thanks.

Thank you.

And thank you, Christine.

The dietary guidelines are updated every five years by the U.S.

Department of Agriculture and Health and Human Services.