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Educate your patients on the importance of 3-A-Day of Dairy: Here's
a great
tool (PDF: 618k) to show families how to get their 3-A-Day of Dairy
every day for stronger bones.
Developed in conjunction with The American Academy of Family
Physicians, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Dietetic
Association, and The National Medical Association.
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Dairy Council Digest Archives
Age-Targeted Dietary Guidelines: Are They In Our Future?
Summary
Traditionally, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans has been directed at all healthy Americans across a wide age range (i.e., two years of age and older). However, nutrient needs and risk for developing chronic diseases differ substantially with age.
Consideration of age-segmented dietary guidelines is appropriate at this time when the fourth edition (1995) of the Dietary Guidelines is being revised. An updated fifth edition of the Guidelines is expected to be published in the year 2000.
Recognition that children are not little adults has led to increased support for separate dietary guidelines for children in recent years. Before dietary recommendations are made for children, there should be firm evidence of benefit and lack of harm. ‘‘One-size-fits-all’’ dietary guidance to ‘‘choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol’’ does not appear to meet these criteria. There is no scientific evidence demonstrating that consuming this diet beginning in childhood lowers blood cholesterol levels or risk of coronary heart disease in adulthood. Further, dietary fat restrictions may compromise children’s nutrient intake and growth.
Adequate calcium intake is especially important for children to optimize their peak bone mass which reduces the risk of osteoporosis in later years. Unfortunately, few children meet their dietary recommendations for calcium, largely because of their low intake of milk and other dairy foods. Therefore, dietary guidelines for children should include recommendations to increase intake of calcium-rich foods.
Questions are being raised regarding the appropriateness of dietary recommendations to reduce fat intake for older adults (>65 years). Studies indicate that widely accepted lipid risk factors (e.g., elevated blood cholesterol levels) for coronary heart disease in middle-aged adults may be less predictive of heart disease in older adults. Following general dietary recommendations to lower fat intake may reduce older adults’ nutrient intake and interfere with their enjoyment of eating. For these reasons, an individualized approach to applying lowfat dietary recommendations to older adults is warranted.
Dietary guidelines for older adults should encourage intake of foods containing calcium, vitamin D, and other bone-supporting nutrients to reduce their risk of osteoporosis. Both calcium intake and vitamin D status are low for many older adults. New dietary recommendations for vitamin D are three times higher for adults over 70 years than for young adults or children. Several factors increase older adults’ risk of vitamin D deficiency including reduced exposure to sunlight, decreased capacity of the skin to produce vitamin D, and low dietary intake of vitamin D. Increasing older adults’ calcium and vitamin D intake has been demonstrated to reduce their risk of osteoporosis. Dairy foods, particularly vitamin D-fortified milk, are nutrient dense foods which provide nutrients often limiting in older adults’ diets.
Age-targeted dietary guidelines for nutritionally vulnerable groups such as children and older adults should be based on sound scientific evidence of efficacy and safety. In particular, efforts should be made to ensure that following dietary guidelines to reduce risk of chronic diseases does not compromise nutrient intake or inadvertently increase risk of other health problems.
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