New dietary recommendations are due later this year from the U.S. government, and big changes could be coming for cholesterol.
A preliminary document from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, released in December and reported this week by the Washington Post, states that ?cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.? That one sentence could drastically change the way Americans think about cholesterol-containing foods, like eggs, shrimp, butter and cheese. If the stance is adopted in forthcoming recommendations from the USDA and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which jointly set national nutrition guidelines, it may mean a vast departure from guidelines set just five years ago. The 2010 dietary guidelines put cholesterol under the ?foods and food components to reduce? category, and the guidelines advise that people eat less than 300 mg per day. (Eggs, a source of dietary cholesterol, contain about 164 mg each.)
A preliminary document from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, released in December and reported this week by the Washington Post, states that ?cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.? That one sentence could drastically change the way Americans think about cholesterol-containing foods, like eggs, shrimp, butter and cheese. If the stance is adopted in forthcoming recommendations from the USDA and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which jointly set national nutrition guidelines, it may mean a vast departure from guidelines set just five years ago. The 2010 dietary guidelines put cholesterol under the ?foods and food components to reduce? category, and the guidelines advise that people eat less than 300 mg per day. (Eggs, a source of dietary cholesterol, contain about 164 mg each.)