On January 7, 2016, the American government introduced new dietary guidelines for the American population. The new guidelines hone in on two important aspects of our diets: sugar and cholesterol.

In a previous statement, the federal government recommended a 300-milligram dietary limit on cholesterol. This statement has been removed and replaced by a statement that simply suggests as little cholesterol intake as possible.

The reasoning behind a limited cholesterol intake is that saturated fats tend to exist in dietary cholesterol; therefore, the higher the cholesterol content, the higher the saturated fat content.

Added to the Federal guideline is a sugar intake limit of ten percent of a person’s daily calorie intake, specifically for added sugars not natural sugars. Under a 2,000 calorie diet, that’s less than one Coca-Cola can.

In an attempt to improve Americans’ understanding of how much sugar they truly ingest, a change in food labels has been proposed by the Food and Drug Administration. The change would require producers to display the added sugar content of a product.

Although the government has done a thorough job of making dietary suggestions from every food group, the American Institute for Cancer Research remains disappointed that the health.gov guidelines did not limit red and processed meats, which are linked to cancer.

For more information on Federal dietary guidelines, click here.