The Dietary Guidelines for Americans were created by the US Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture and were updated in 2016. The guidelines are intended to help Americans make healthier food and beverage choices.
This is important because 2 of every 3 Americans are either overweight or obese, and obesity is one of the most important causes of preventable diseases like heart attack and stroke. A summary of these guidelines was published in the February 2, 2016, issue of JAMA.
The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting intake of saturated fats to 10% of total daily calories and, when possible, replacing foods high in saturated fats with foods high in unsaturated fats.
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US Department of Health and Human Services
health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/
To find this and previous JAMA Patient Pages, go to the Patient Page link on JAMA’s website atwww.jama.com.