The United States lifts the upper limit on cholesterol intake, but still restricts saturated fatty acid intake

But international research in recent years has confirmed that as much as 70% of the cholesterol in the human bloodstream is produced by the body itself, and the proportion of cholesterol increased through dietary intake is not high. Xu Huiyu, director of the Nutrition Department at the John Tung Foundation, said that in fact the lecithin abundant in eggs can instead lower cholesterol, and that if you want to lower cholesterol, what you should actually restrain is saturated fatty acid. "These high-cholesterol foods should have had their stigma removed long ago."

Chen Juncheng, an instructor in the food technician credit course at the School of Continuing Education of Chinese Culture University, admitted that because he himself has a tendency toward high cholesterol, he has long been battling cholesterol, and even went as long as half a year to a year without eating high-cholesterol foods, yet his cholesterol level remained on the high side and he still had to rely on medication to control it. It was only after seeking a doctor that he learned that his constitution was simply poor at cholesterol metabolism, and he came to understand even more that diet is not the only factor causing high cholesterol.

Lowering Saturated Fatty Acids Starts with Reviewing Animal Fat Intake

"Compared with high-cholesterol foods, saturated fatty acid intake actually needs to be limited even more." Xu Huiyu explained that saturated fatty acids are the material the body uses to synthesize cholesterol itself. In other words, if intake of foods high in saturated fatty acids such as animal fats, red meat, and margarine is controlled, the 70% of cholesterol in the human body will naturally decline, and at the same time the possibility of blood vessel blockage can also be reduced..

Li Wanping, a dietitian at Rongxin Clinic, mentioned that based on the dietary habits of the American people, meat, milk, plant-based palm oil, coconut oil, and similar items are listed by the United States as foods high in saturated fatty acids. If Taiwan, China intends in the future to remind citizens to pay attention to saturated fatty acid intake, it should place more emphasis on the use of animal fats such as lard and chicken fat, because compared with red meat, lard in Taiwan, China is widely used and hidden in all kinds of foods, causing people to inadvertently consume excessive amounts without being aware of it.

Li Wanping said that based on her clinical observations, whether patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol are all uniformly described in dietary diagnosis as having "excess energy." For cholesterol patients who eat a lot of meat, advising them to eat fewer eggs may not help; instead, they should be reminded to reduce their meat intake. This time the United States found that its people eat a high proportion of red meat and issued the recommendation to eat more seafood and less red meat, and the overall proportion of animal fat in Taiwan, China should also be reviewed for how to reduce it.

Li Wanping pointed out that although some vegetarians do not eat meat, they may like to eat fried scallion pancakes, fried taro, or very oily cabbage. If such fat intake is too high, it will affect cholesterol. Therefore, this is no longer an era of looking at which foods are too high in cholesterol, but rather of finding a dietary pattern suited to each individual based on that person's dietary situation.

Dietitian: Build a Habit of Eating More Vegetables and Less Red Meat

In addition to removing the upper limit on cholesterol intake and setting saturated fatty acid intake levels, the new edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans also recommends that daily sugar intake be 10% of total calories, and calls for eating more fruits and vegetables and plant-based foods such as whole grains and legumes. It is understood that this guideline will in the future become a reference for bodies such as food manufacturers and school lunch programs.

Regarding the new edition of the U.S. dietary guidelines, Chen Miaoxin, section chief of the Community Health Division of the Health Promotion Administration, only said that the Health Promotion Administration is currently revising the "Daily Dietary Guidelines for Citizens," that international changes will all be included in discussions together, and that it is also integrating the ongoing national nutrition monitoring survey. The new edition of the guidelines is hoped to be completed by the end of the year; because it is still under investigation, the direction of the revisions cannot yet be clearly stated.

Li Wanping, meanwhile, suggested that in addition to reviewing saturated fatty acid intake, the Health Promotion Administration should cooperate more with the Education Bureau to strengthen nutrition education in elementary schools. "Rather than restricting from the end which things should not be eaten too much, it would be better to call from the source for eating vegetables first, then protein, then starch. If such an eating order can be established, only then can it prevent people's saturated fatty acid intake from remaining in a state of excess."

U.S. Healthy Eating Recommendations and Limits:

1. Limits on intake of saturated fatty acids, trans fats, added sugar, and sodium.

2. Each person's daily sugar intake should be less than 10% of total calories. (Daily sugar intake should not exceed 200 calories, equivalent to one cup of a 500cc full-sugar hand-shaken beverage)

3. Each person's daily saturated fatty acid intake should be less than 10% of total calories (daily fat intake should not exceed 22 grams, equivalent to 100 grams of beef short rib slices, roughly 6-12 slices of hot-pot beef)

4. Each person's daily sodium intake should be less than 2300 milligrams (equivalent to 6 grams of salt).

5. Adults should drink alcohol in moderation (women at most once a day, men at most twice a day)