Dietary Guidelines

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans emphasizes the importance of creating a healthy eating pattern to maintain health and reduce the risk of disease. These recommendations provide guidance on key elements of healthy eating patterns and focuses on preventing the diet-related chronic diseases that continue to affect Americans. Everything we eat and drink and the choices we make day to day and over our lifetime matters.

The federal government, specifically the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA), develops each edition of the Dietary Guidelines. While its purpose is to help people eat healthfully and reduce the risk of chronic diet-related disease, the Dietary Guidelines is not written for consumers directly. Every 5 years, HHS and USDA publish the Dietary Guidelines to reflect the current body of scientific evidence on nutrition, food, and health. While previous editions focused primarily on specific, individual dietary components such as foods, food groups, and nutrients, the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines takes a wider view. It emphasizes overall eating patterns, the combinations of all the foods and drinks that people consume every day. The complete 2015 - 2020 Dietary Guidelines is available online. You can read, search, and print the online digital document.

A diet is an eating plan. Diet refers to everything you eat and drink. The Dietary Guidelines have 23 key recommendations for everyone, and six more for special groups of people, such as pregnant women and older adults.

The Top 10 Things You Need to Know About the Dietary Guidelines for Americans

1	A lifetime of healthy eating helps to prevent chronic diseases.
2	The Dietary Guidelines recommendations can help you make informed choices about eating for you and your family.
3	The path to improving health through nutrition is to follow a healthy eating pattern that's right for you.
4	A healthy eating pattern includes: vegetables, fruits, grains, fat-free or low fat dairy, a variety of proteins and some oils.
5	Healthy eating patterns limit added sugars. Less than 10% of your daily calories should come from added sugars.
6	Healthy eating patterns limit saturated and trans fats. Less than 10% of your daily calories should come from saturated fats.
7	Healthy eating patterns limit sodium.
8	Small shifts in food choices over the course of a week, a day, or even a meal can make a difference in working toward a healthy eating pattern that works for you.
9	Regular physical activity is one of the most important things individuals can do to improve their health.
10	Everyone has a role at home, schools, workplaces, communities, and food retail outlets in encouraging easy, accessible, and affordable ways to support healthy choices.

Calories are not a food ingredient or a nutrient. Instead, a calorie is a unit that measures energy from food and energy used by the body. One calorie is the same amount of energy no matter where it comes from. Calories are not good or bad. Everyone needs them to live. Your caloric intake affects your health and wellness. Consuming the right number of calories from foods that have the right variety and balance of nutrients is important for your health and physical activity.

Boys require an average of 2,800 calories per day.

Girls require an average of 2,200 calories per day.

The Recommended Dietary Allowances or RDA's give advice about daily nutrient needs for most healthy people. They are part of the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI's).

The Recommended Dietary Intake for Teens:

Recommended Dietary Intake for Teens
Age	Boys			Girls
Age	Sedentary	Moderately Active	Active	Sedentary	Moderately Active	Active
13	2,000	2,200	2,600	1,600	2,000	2,200
14	2,000	2,400	2,800	1,800	2,000	2,400
15	2,200	2,600	3,000	1,800	2,000	2,400
16-18	2,400	2,800	3,200	1,800	2,000	2,400

Sedentary: less than 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity in addition to daily activities

Moderately Active: at least 30 minutes and up to 60 minutes a day of moderate physical activity in addition to daily activities

Active: 60 or more minutes a day of moderate physical activity in addition to daily activities

The energy you need for body processes is called energy for basal metabolism. The speed in which the body uses energy for body processes is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR). A person with a high BMR uses more calories when resting than someone with a low BMR. BMR differs, depending on body build and size, age, gender and genetic make-up.

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