Other Voices: Guidelines of Health Organizations

In addition to the Food Guide Pyramid and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, several private health organizations (the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and the American Institute for Cancer Research) have issued their own nutritional guidelines.

When the guidelines of all the major health organizations are compared, they are similar. Recognizing this, experts from the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Dietetic Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, and the National Institutes of Health met in 1999 to review scientific evidence and to identify practices that are effective against major diseases. The dietary recommendations that these groups have in common include:

• Total fat: no more than 30% of calories

• Saturated fat: less than 10% of calories

• Monounsaturated fat: no more than 15% of calories

• Polyunsaturated fat: no more than 15% of calories

• Cholesterol: no more than 300 milligrams daily

• Carbohydrates: 55% or more of calories

• salt (sodium chloride): less than 6 grams daily (4 grams of sodium)

These recommendations can be achieved by following the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (page 9) and by using the Food Guide Pyramid (page 11).

Healthy Weight Pyramid