In an effort to make it easier for people to eat a healthier diet, a panel of nutrition experts will soon release the revised national dietary guidelines, but at least one expert at Iowa State said she thinks more should be done.

Pam Voelkers, dietitian for ISU Dining Services, said the revisions could be helpful, but other things should be done to help people understand exactly what constitutes a healthy diet.

According to CNN.com, the new guidelines, which will be released to the public soon, recommend that people cut down on foods high in saturated fat, such as meat and dairy products.

Revisions to the guidelines are made every five years to reflect new findings from scientific research.

The current recommendations state that people should maintain a diet “low in fat.” A revision will say an ideal diet would be “moderate in total fat” and low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

Research done by the food industry has shown that people are turned off when they see the term low-fat. According to CNN.com, the nutrition experts making the revisions hope recommending a diet “moderate in fat” will be easier for people to take.

Voelkers said the revisions could be helpful, although she said consuming too much fat is not the only problem that exists.

“Some people think they shouldn’t consume any fat,” she explained. “That’s not good either, because then they aren’t absorbing their fat-soluble vitamins.”

Changing the wording from “low-fat” to “moderate-fat” might encourage people who are consuming too little fat to take in the amount they should, Voelkers said.

She said in addition to guideline revisions, other work should be done to inform people about how to maintain a healthy diet.

“The general public doesn’t know about these guidelines,” she said, “and no one has told people what ‘moderate in fat’ means. Someone should say that ‘this or that’ is an example of a diet which is moderate in fat.”

Other changes to the recommendations specify exactly what types of people would benefit from moderate alcohol consumption.

According to the current guidelines, “moderate drinking is associated with a lower risk for coronary heart disease in some individuals,” but it is never specified who those individuals are. The revision will state men older than 45 and women older than 55 are the age groups who benefit from moderate alcohol use and that moderate drinking offers “little health benefit for younger people.”

Moderate drinking is defined as one drink per day for women and two drinks for men.

Voelkers said that particular revision will be especially good for students.

“Some students might hear about the current guideline and think that it is OK to drink moderately, but many of them probably don’t realize that the studies show only middle-aged people benefit from it,” she said. “It’s good to specify that.”

Martha Severson, coordinator of food control service for ISU Dining Services, said she did not think the revisions would affect Dining Services very much since it is not mandatory that ISU’s food service follow the standards.

“We offer a wide variety of foods, allowing students to choose whatever diet they want,” she said. “We encourage them to eat a healthy diet, but we’re not public schools, which are required to adhere to the guidelines because the meals are federally funded.”

Severson said the revisions might affect how individual dietitians counsel students on eating healthy, although all students have different nutritional needs.

“Each student has different needs and their diet can be tailored to meet those needs,” she said.