diet/nutrition questions

Question
QUESTION: Hi. I have a couple of questions. First, is there a such thing as getting too few carbs in a day? Also, I notice on food labels that the nutrition information is based on a 2000 calorie diet, but are people supposed to consume 2000 calories a day? I mean, would they be starving themselves if they didn't? Thanks

ANSWER: Hi Danielle,

Yes, I think there is such a thing as getting too few carbs in. Some people aim for a low carb diet to lose weight, but your body's preferred source of fuel comes from carbs.
If you eat a 2000 calorie diet it's recommended (by the American Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association, The American Heart Association, The AMerican Cancer Society, etc) to consume about 50% of your calories from carbohydrate. This would be about 250 grams of carbs.

The daily values are based on 2000 calorie intake which is an average.  Younger, active men and very active fit young women usually need more like 2600 calories or so; older people and smaller people probably should be taking 1600-1800 calories a day, especially if they are overweight.  It depends on each individual's size, gender, age, and activity level.
Personally I only need about 1750 calories per day and I would gain slowly on 2000 calories, but I am just over 5 feet tall and middle aged :)

It's just the best thing they could come up with to all fit in one section of a food label and give general nutrition information that applied to "almost" everyone.

Glad you are interested in nutrition information; you might be interested in reading one of my blogs: http://throwawayyourfatclothes.blogspot.com and http://lifedietbalance.blogspot.com
Enjoy!

Laurie

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I recently read that it is now ok to include one egg per day in the diet after many years of people saying that they are bad because of the cholesterol. Do you agree with that? Also, is it ok to eat turkey bacon each day?

Answer
Yes, the recommendations for eating eggs went up from 2 per week to something like 5 per week: it really depends on the specific person's cholesterol level and the rest of their diet, but they do no longer say "stay away from eggs".
Turkey bacon is much leaner than regular bacon, but still high in sodium, so again it depends on the specific diet the person needs to follow and whether a high sodium intake is a concern or it's the fat and cholesterol.  Of course, serving size matters too! Obviously if you eat a lot of one food you are going to end up getting more fat, salt, or whatever is contained within the food :)

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