Recommended Healthy Dietary Intake

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• Energy
• Protein
• Fat
• Carbohydrate
• Dietary Fibre
• Refined Sugars

Energy

Protein

It is recommended that 15% of your food should contain protein. A normal human being need around 0.8 g per kg bodyweight. E.g. a person weight 70 kg should have around 56g protein every day. Protein also provides energy to the body, 1 gram provides 17 KJ (4 kcal).

Different types of protein

Protein occurs in both plants and animals, in different amounts. In the table you can see how much protein different products contain per 100 gram.

You body needs protein. Protein is built from 20 different amino acids of which 9 are essential amino acids, that your body can’t produce, they must be supplied by your diet. Your body needs the amino acids to build and repair your body and for growth.

The quality of a protein source is based on its level of these essential amino acids along with its digestibility and ability to be utilized by the body. So if a protein source provides all of the 9 essential amino acids in adequate amounts, it’s a very good protein source, and is classified as a complex protein.

One way to evaluating protein quality is to determine the protein’s biological value (BV)12. The higher the BV is the better protein.

Examples of good complete proteins are fish, meat, dairy and poultry. Plant foods are a good source of protein, but grains and legumes especially, often lack one or more of the essential amino acids (cereal and legume protein have low levels of lysine and tryptophan). The way you can turn plant protein into a complete protein sources (higher BV) is by combining them e.g. grains with legumes13. When they are combined they complement each other, so that mixed plant protein diets exhibit much higher BV values and may be similar to animal proteins14.

It’s important to combine different plant proteins, especially for vegans who exclude milk and eggs from their diet. But there is no need to worry, if you eat a varied diet of vegetables, fruit, grains and legumes you're almost assured complete protein, as long as the calorie content of the diet is high enough.

Fat

Fat provides us with energy in a concentrated form and it carries a lot of calories. 1 gram of fat gives you 38 KJ, which is over double the KJ of carbohydrates. In addition to energy, dietary fat provides essential fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins (things your body needs to get through the food you eat, because the body can’t produce it). Fat is not just fat there are different types of fat: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat.

The table below shows which fats mostly contains each of these:

You can recognise the difference in the fats, by their physical characteristics. Fats that are solid at room temperature, contain a high concentration of saturated fatty acids. While oils are liquid and have a higher concentration of the healthy unsaturated fatty acids. Oils are usually of plant origin, either from the flesh of the fruit (olive oil) or from the seeds (linseed and sunflower).

Products like butter, lard and suet, that are isolated from animal products tend to be solid fat and have a high concentration of saturated fat. That’s the reason why it’s a good idea to go for the healthier option and choose margarine. Most margarine is made from highly unsaturated fats such as sunflower and research has shown beneficial effects on serum cholesterol.

Saturated fat

Normally you will find saturated fat in the following products: Diary products (full-fat cheese, milk, butter, crème fraises 38%, cream ), hard margarine and meat products. If the food contains to much saturated fat it will increase your bloods cholesterol level meaning there is a bigger risk of cardiovascular diseases. That’s the reason why it’s a good idea to use small amounts of hard margarine, butter, and mixed products. Instead use lean diary products, lean meat and lean meat products.

Mono-polyunsaturated fat

This group is unsaturated and usually comes from plants. They provide the essential fatty acids needed for a good health. Studies have shown unsaturated fats have beneficial health effects: they helps lower blood levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDLs), (“the bad cholesterol”) contributing to artery-clogging plaque that clings to blood vessels and help induce heart disease15.

Among the beneficial, unsaturated fats are soya oil, sunflower oil, olive oil and all other nut and seed oils. Nuts and seeds, especially those providing the monounsaturated and medium-chain fatty acids, are good and beneficial for your body. Several large epidemiological studies have demonstrated that frequent consumption of nuts is associated with a decreased risk of CHD (heard disease)16.

When you eat nuts and seeds, be sure to focus on the raw version, avoiding nuts and seeds roasted in oils or coated with sugar. Why not mix the nuts and seeds up in a bag and you will have a healthy snack, or add to you salad with sautéed greens. Try eating a variety such as almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, brazil nuts, linseed, pecans and pumpkin seeds, they all have some great nutritional value.

Carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are readily available in the diet, providing 17 kJ (4 kcal) per gram of energy. It’s recommended that 50-60 percent of the energy you require should be provided by carbohydrates.

Dietary fibre17,18

The recommended dietary intake for adults should be at least 25-35 g/day or 3g/MJ. Dietary fibre is often removed in the processing of food, so that’s one of the main reasons why it’s good to choose more unprocessed food.

An easy way to add additional fibre to your diet, is by eating more bran (the fibre from wheat), unprocessed cereals, pulses, vegetables, potatoes and tubers, fruit and berries. That will increase feacal bulk and helpful in the treatment of constipation. The fibre will also bind water in you stomach and you will feel full for longer meaning that you will tend not to overeat. Each extra gram of fibre daily adds approximately 5g to the daily stool weight. Some studies show, that a diet high in fibre can help lower LDL (the bad cholesterol) and increase HDL (the good cholesterol)19. A large scale multiethnic study in the USA, which operated across 10 European countries, showed an association between a high-fibre diet and protection against colonic cancer20.

Rye bread contains most. One peace of rye bread contains 4.3 grams fibre compared to white bread, where you need to eat 3 slices of bread to get the same amount of fibre.

Refined sugars

It’s recommended that maximum 10% of you daily food intake should come from refined sugars. A lot of products contains a big amount of hidden sugar e.g. sweets, fizzy drinks. These products are empty calories, because they don’t give you nutritional benefit. Studies have shown that a high intake of refined sugars may adversely affect the intake of essential nutrients21. Finally, frequent consumption of sugar-rich food should be avoided in order to reduce the carries risk.

On the picture below here you can see how much sugar the different product contain. Bear in mind that the maximum recommendation on refined sugar is 10% of your daily food intake. For men that will mean maximum 70 grams of refined sugar. Women are recommended a maximum 55 grams of refined sugar per day. Children (under 17 years) should eat even less, the maximum being between 30-65 grams per day.

References

12, 14, 16: Human Nutrition 2005, Eleventh Edition by Cather Geisller and Hilary Powers. Churchill Livingstone. ISBNL 0443073562
13, 15, 18, 20: Clinical Medicine 2005, Sixth Edition by Parveen Kumar and Michael Clark. Elservier Saunders. ISBN: 0702027634
17, 19, 21: Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2004 - Integrating Nutrition and Phyiscal Activity, 4th Edition. Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen 2004. ISBN: 9289310626