QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kleinman, R. E. Articles by Lauer, R. N. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kleinman, R. E. Articles by Lauer, R. N.

Dietary Guidelines for Children: U.S. Recommendations¹

Ronald E. Kleinman^*,2, Laurence F. Finberg, William J. Klish and Ronald N. Lauer

^* Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA University of California, San Francisco, CA Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, Texas University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics Iowa City, Iowa

The primary goal for pediatric dietary guidelines is to provide nutrients to support optimal growth and development at different ages from infancy through the end of adolescence. Over the past 15 years increasing attention has been directed toward developing nutrition recommendations that may lower the risk of chronic illness later in life. Recent evidence supports earlier studies that demonstrate that atherogenesis begins in childhood, is an evolving process and is influenced by environmental factors. As a result, in part, because of nutritional recommendations to lower the fat content of the diet, total fat and saturated fat as a percentage of total energy intake have declined in the diet of children and adolescents over the past 20 years. At the same time there has been no increase in the prevalence of growth failure; children, in fact, are heavier than their counterparts of 15 years ago. With a decrease in dietary fat, the mean serum cholesterol of the population as a whole has decreased steadily over the past 20 years. Children can safely eat a lower fat diet in which fat contributes 30% of total energy and saturated fat < 10% of total energy.

KEY WORDS: • atherosclerosis • children • cholesterol • fat • growth

¹ Presented as part of the symposium "Dietary Guidelines for Children: A Focus on Fat" given at the Experimental Biology '95 meeting, Atlanta, GA, on April 10, 1995. This symposium was sponsored by the American Institute of Nutrition and was supported by a grant from the National Dairy Council. Guest editor for the symposium was Gregory D. Miller, National Dairy Council, Rosemont, IL.

² To whom correspondence should be addressed. Massachusetts General Hospital, Pediatric Gastrointestinal and Nutrition Unit, 32 Fruit Street, VBK 107, Boston, MA 02114.