Saturday, August 21, 2004
People could pick up extra calories for energy.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal dietary advisory panel is considering whether its revision of nutrition guidelines should let some people treat themselves to guilt-free desserts.
Such treats would be bonuses for healthful living, under proposals being considered by the advisory panel that's drafting an update of the nutritional guidance.
The experts are looking at what are called "discretionary calories," which could be allowed for people who get nutritious meals while staying below the calories they need to burn for energy.
The panel is looking at ways to write discretionary calories into the recommendations that the government is to issue early next year, in tandem with an update of the food guide pyramid.
Discretionary calories are what's left when the calories needed to meet all of a person's nutrient needs are subtracted from the greater number of calories needed to meet energy needs.
How it works
To gain discretionary calories, people would eat a balanced diet of foods that are high in nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, but not high in calories. This could include vegetables and fruits, for instance, as well as protein from meat and carbohydrates from bread. But consumers would have to eat in moderation, so they get all their nutrients while staying below their energy ceiling.
The payoff: They could pick up the extra calories for energy without having to worry about nutrition. And this allows a variety of high-calorie fun foods. Ice cream would be one possibility, said committee member Joanne Lupton, a nutrition professor at Texas A & amp;M University.
The number of discretionary calories would depend on how much people ate and how much energy they burned. There would be only a little wiggle room for people whose diets are close to their energy needs. Active people who are moderate eaters would have more discretionary options -- perhaps an ice-cream sandwich and a bag of potato chips, at about 150 calories each.
The catch
But there's a catch: People can't look for treats if they are overweight, because they already have used up their discretionary calories. As a result, food industry groups find the idea of discretionary calories unsettling. Although the advisory committee has not come up with final wording, the industry groups don't want consumers told that foods they love could be off-limits.
The Grocery Manufacturers of America urged the panel not to single out any particular type of food. It encouraged the committee instead to stick with its call for people to be more physically active. People should be encouraged to balance the calories they take in with the calories they burn, the trade group said.
Lupton noted that people who burn more calories can eat more, and said people could "buy" discretionary calories by being more active. People also can create more discretionary calories by eating mostly high-nutrition, lower-calorie foods, she said.