Men's Health

The New American Diet: Can We Do It?

Vitamin and Mineral Supplements? continued...

And as people struggle to meet their 2,000 calorie limit, they may be tempted to cut out nutritious foods -- particularly calcium-rich dairy foods. This may also happen when people reach another limit -- the end of their food budgets. In both cases, inexpensive supplements may fill the gap.

Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD, LD, director of nutrition for WebMD Health, is a strong proponent of healthy foods. Yet she says her family takes vitamins every day.

"I am a big proponent of taking a daily vitamin - we call it the insurance pill around our house," Zelman says.

Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and nutritional consultant to the Pittsburgh Steelers, also agrees with Dickinson -- up to a point.

"If people really step up to their plates and are able to make changes and increase their whole fruits and vegetables and dairy foods, they won't need supplements," Bonci tells WebMD. "But because everybody isn't going to be making this transition overnight, a multiple-vitamin-and-mineral supplement is fine."

That said, Bonci and Zelman both stress that the body needs healthy food.

"All those things in the guidelines, those dark greens and deep oranges and so on -- all those phytonutrients in the food -- are not going to be in the supplement," Bonci says. "You can take a Centrum, but you still have to eat your spinach."

The Department of Health and Human Services, one of the agencies that released the guidelines, did not return calls seeking comment.

Getting the Most From the Guidelines

Here's the problem: We Americans know we aren't eating healthy enough. If the guidelines scare us, it's only because we've become used to more unhealthy habits than most of us care to admit. Sure, the guidelines are a blueprint for building a healthy body. But Rome wasn't built in a day.

"People truly have to think about where they are right now," Bonci says. "People need to honestly ask themselves, 'Am I even willing even to eat more fruits and vegetables?' For some people, the idea of red, yellow, orange, purple, and green foods - well, if it's not a gummy bear, they are going to say no. They just won't do it."

One way to get a handle on this is to think about how much food you're going to eat over the course of the day. Think about what kinds of foods you'll emphasize, and which ones you'll have less of.

"So say, 'OK, I am willing to change the look of my plate. I'm going toward half of that being fruits or vegetables and one quarter of it protein and one quarter starch,'" Bonci advises. "That is easier for people, to draw a line on the plate and go from there. In and of itself that is going to cut down calories, because the bulk of the plate is going to be foods with a lower energy density to it, without having to go into the rigors and logistics of counting calories."