The American Heart Association (AHA) has released new dietary guidelines, revising certain key recommendations relating to fats, particularly saturated fats and trans fats. The AHA now recommends limiting our intake of saturated fats to less than 7 per cent of daily calories, compared with its old limit of less than 10 per cent of calories.

Perhaps more significantly, the AHA is the first health group to offer a specific recommendation for limiting our intake of trans fats, suggesting trans fats make up less than 1 per cent of daily calories. This may be hard for most people to quantify, as the government required food manufacturers merely to state the number of grams of trans fats in their products, beginning in January 2006, but not a daily value. Still, the Food and Drug Administration estimates the average daily intake of trans fats to be 5.8 grams a day, which translates into 2.6 per cent of calories. One large serving of McDonald’s fries contains 8 grams of trans fats.

The bulk of the AHA’s new recommendations are couched in terms of making healthy lifestyle choices: choose good fats over bad; eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains; eat less sugar; limit alcohol intake; avoid tobacco; and, finally, become physically active. No fads or fancy diets here; just plain common sense.