The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans are recommendations that our government updates every five years and the newest updates have arrived with a few of the changes that are surprising.

Eat your eggs and be happy! There is no longer a limit on daily cholesterol intake. Although the daily limit has been banished, intake should be moderate. If you have been instructed by your physician to limit your cholesterol intake that is what you should do. As with anything, moderation is recommended.

Drink coffee! Coffee has been cited more and more recently as having positive health benefits and this is being recognized. Of course, this is black coffee (no added sugar or cream) that has been touted to help reduce the risk of diabetes, certain cancers, heart disease and liver disease. Of course moderation is addressed; the recommendation is up to 5 cups a day.

Sugar, namely added sugar, is the most significant change that will be challenging! Ultimately, the new guidelines state no more than 10% of the daily caloric intake should come from added sugar. If your daily caloric intake is 2000 calories, then no more than 200 of those calories (10% of 2000) should be from added sugar. This is where reading the nutrition label and educating yourself is important. Added sugar is the sugar used to process or preserve foods. For example, sugar is utilized to aid with fermentation in breads and helps keep baked goods fresher longer. Of course sugar is added for other reasons such as enhancing flavors or colors of food products. Unfortunately, at this time only the total amount of sugar in the food is actually listed on the nutrition label. Even with that limitation, the nutrition label does help you determine if you want to partake in that food product. Here’s the math, one gram of sugar has 4 calories, so referring to a daily caloric intake of 2000 calories and no more than 200 calories being from sugar, leads to the maximum amount of sugar daily of 50 grams (200 calories divided by 4 calories in one gram of sugar equals 50 grams).

So remember to follow the Myplate guidelines and daily serving suggestions. Make half of your plate fruits and vegetables and strive for at least four servings of vegetables and three servings of fruits daily. Utilize a variety of protein sources such as eggs, nuts, beans, soy, poultry, lean meats, seafood and fish with the total amount of all servings in the day not to exceed six ounces. Strive to make whole grains a priority and make at least three of the six recommended daily intakes from whole grains. And finally, remember the two to three servings of low-fat or non-fat dairy each day. Read the nutrition labels. So, enjoy the eggs and coffee but be aware of the sugar you are eating.

The new guidelines are here to help us stay healthy and avoid the risk of developing many diseases. Simple changes implemented over time can really add up to large health benefits.

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