The American Heart Association issued new dietary guidelines to help consumers yesterday, saying people should aim for a healthy overall pattern of foods rather than overemphasizing nutrient numbers at every meal.

This big-picture approach is designed to be easier to use than past guidelines, allowing people to choose dishes they like from different food groups rather than calculating percentages of nutrients in the items they’re eating.

The new recommendations, a tweaking of guidelines issued in 1996, continue to promote fruits, vegetables and grains over meat and dairy products as a step toward reducing heart disease risk.

And they show no letup in the effort to get Americans to slim down, eat fewer calories and consume less saturated fat.

However, the heart association for the first time recommends two helpings a week of fish such as tuna or salmon, based on the latest research findings that fatty acids in fish can reduce hearth disease risk.

Dr. Ronald M. Krauss, a University of California at Berkeley scientist who chaired the association’s dietary guidelines committee, said the recommended proportions from different food groups are similar to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s much-publicized food pyramid, but differ because they seek to achieve certain goals.

"We don’t think a diet is effective if it hasn’t lowered cholesterol or blood pressure," Krauss said. For the first time, the hearth association guidelines are adaptable to people with different levels of heart disease risk, such as high cholesterol or elevated blood pressure.

Despite improved health habits and medical advances, hearth disease is still the No. 1 killer in the United States, causing more than 950,000 deaths a year - one every 33 seconds. And nearly 60 million Americans have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease.

The centerpiece of eating to avoid heart disease, say the recommendations, is a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, lean meats and poultry. Five servings of fruits and vegetables make up the bulk of daily menus.

The Heart Association calls for limiting saturated fats (found in animal products and tropical oils) to 10 percent or less of daily calories. So-called trans fatty acids, a component of hard margarine and some baked goods and commercially prepared foods, should be drastically reduced.

Intake of salt and cholesterol should be kept low, alcoholic drinks should be limited to one per day for women and two per day for men, and people should generally decrease the size of portions of high-calorie foods to prevent weight gain, say the recommendations.

As for slimming down, the guidelines discourage extremely high-protein or low-fat diets, and instead urge striking a balance between calories eaten and calories burned through exercise. Weight loss should be gradual, not more than 1 or 2 pounds a week.

Meier Stampfer, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, applauded the retooled guidelines. "This represents a major step forward toward balancing the guidelines with the current science," he said.

In particular, he said, the new recommendations recognize that unsaturated fats, the kind in vegetable oils, nuts and fish, for example, are good to have in the diet. Eating unsaturated fats is preferable to loading up on carbohydrates as a dietary strategy, he said.

"There has been this repeated mantra of ‘fat is bad’ and an emphasis on omitting total fat, and there was never a good scientific basis for that," Stampfer said.

He lightly criticized the guidelines on a few points. "I was disappointed they didn’t distinguish the quality of the carbohydrates enough," he said, indicating that some starches, like potatoes, are broken down quickly into glucose in the body, raising blood sugar too quickly. Other carbohydrates, like whole wheat and very coarse bread, take longer to break down and raise blood sugar more slowly.

Whole Grains foodstuffs can reduce risk of stroke

Women who eat lots of whole-grain foods can significantly reduce their risk of strokes, researchers say in another study suggesting that healthy eating leads to healthy living.

Those who ate the most whole grains -- the equivalent of two to three slices of whole-grain bread daily -- were 30 percent to 40 percent less likely to have an ischemic stroke (that is, one due to lack of blood supply) than women who ate less than half a slice or the equivalent daily.

The findings, based on data on 75,521 participants in Harvard University’s Nurses Health Study, appear in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

From 1984 to 1996, 352 strokes occurred in the study group. Most were ischemic strokes, caused by blockages in brain-feeding arteries. Most of the estimated 600,000 strokes reported each year nation-wide are this type.

Strokes, the nation’s third-leading cause of death, afflict men and women equally but are more likely to be fatal in women.

The findings suggest that "replacing refined grains with whole grains by even one serving a day may have significant benefits in reducing the risk of ischemic stroke," wrote the authors.

Supplements

Half the population in the United States consumes vitamins and minerals and botanical synthetics at least once in a while, which generate billions of dollars for health food stores. But people are still having heart attacks every second. And their waistline is still getting bigger every month. People are always looking for a magic shortcut. As we know, our ancestors used to eat whole food. But today’s technology and magic pills cannot act as a substitute for better health habits. You hear from friends, relatives and people at the gym that you should try natural substances that turn out to be very expensive and useless to a certain degree. Moreover, some supplements can be dangerous because of lack of research in the field, especially when it comes from outside the United States, where there is not much regulation, but only word of mouth. In most cases, if the food comes from poor soil, you may add some vitamins and minerals to ensure that you are getting the micronutrients that you need.

Use common sense and do some research. Remember, there is no substitute for proper nutrition and exercise. If you eat a balanced diet and take time to select good food, you may not need supplements. Select a doctor who knows about nutrition and alternative medicine. If he or she cannot provide you with the essential information, it is a wakeup call for you to change doctors. Don’t put your life at risk by getting advice from friends or gym buddies. Many people today at the health clubs are taking some drugs, most of which can be harmless. There is no guarantee that long-term use can be safe; especially, adding strange substances to your body slow it down. Most promoters may not tell you the truth about it because they are looking out for themselves, which I call selfish and not being responsible to others.