Nutrition News

NUTRITION UPDATE FOR April 2000

Unified Dietary Guidelines

Want to reduce your cancer risk? Follow the dietary recommendations of the American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org). Need a diet to lower your risk for heart disease? Nutrition guidelines are available from the American Heart Association (www.americanheart.org). Looking for a good diet for kids? The American Academy of Pediatrics (www.aap.org) can give you direction.

If you think nutrition experts never agree on anything, here’s good news. These top health organizations, along with The American Dietetic Association (www.eatright.org), have come together to publish "Unified Dietary Guidelines" which encompass the recommendations from each group.

Follow these dietary strategies to lower your risk for cancer and heart disease. In addition, this eating style is good for children. And don’t be fooled by their simplicity, say scientists. These guidelines have five decades of nutrition research to back them up:

1. Eat a variety of foods.
2. Choose most of what you eat from plant sources.
3. Eat five or more servings of fruit and vegetables each day.
4. Eat six or more servings of bread, pasta, and cereal grains each day.
5. Eat high-fat foods sparingly; especially those from animal sources.
6. Keep your intake of simple sugars to a minimum.

Shopping for dietary supplements (vitamins, minerals, herbal products) just got a little easier. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has finalized a rule that defines which types of statements are legal for dietary supplement products.

Under the current "Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act", dietary supplements can carry claims that the product affects the structure or function of the body without FDA approval. They are prohibited from claims that a product can prevent, cure, or treat a disease. For example, a product may carry a claim that it "builds strong bones", but not that it "prevents osteoporosis," without prior FDA approval.

The new rule further defines what the FDA considers "structure/function" claims and which are "disease" claims. Creative names such as "Carpultum" or "CircuCure" are allowed, even if they hint at a specific disease. Also allowed are claims that do not specifically relate to a disease, such as "muscle enhancer" or "helps you relax".

The waters still remain hazy on dietary supplements (see Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies, 8e, p. 240). With this new rule, FDA at least hopes to clarify what type of claims are considered appropriate for these products.

One substance currently available as a dietary supplement is in reality a hormone with potentially harmful effects, says the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR). DHEA, or dehydroepiandrosterone, is a hormone, produced by the adrenal gland which is converted to other hormones in the body, such as estrogen and testosterone.

People who take supplements of DHEA may increase their risk for hormone-related cancers such as breast, endometrial, and prostate cancers. And for a person who has one of these cancers, DHEA could cause tumors to grow more quickly, according to the AICR. To date, the Food and Drug Administration has received over 2600 reports of adverse health problems linked to consumers’ use of DHEA. (See Supplements Must be Safe...Right?, Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies, 8e, p. 240.)

—Barbara Quinn, MS, RD, CDE