August 22, 2004

BY IRA DREYFUSS

WASHINGTON -- A federal dietary advisory panel is considering whether its revision of nutrition guidelines should let some people treat themselves to guilt-free desserts.

Such treats would be bonuses for healthful living, under proposals being considered by the advisory panel that's drafting an update of the nutritional guidance.

The experts are looking at what are called ''discretionary calories.'' These could be allowed for people who get nutritious meals while staying below the calories they need to burn for energy.

The panel is looking at ways to write discretionary calories into the recommendations that the government is to issue early next year, in tandem with an update of the food guide pyramid.

Discretionary calories are what's left when the calories needed to meet all of a person's nutrient needs are subtracted from the greater number of calories needed to meet energy needs.

To gain discretionary calories, people would eat a balanced diet of foods that are high in nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, but not high in calories. This could include vegetables and fruits, for instance, as well as protein from meat and carbohydrates from bread. But consumers would have to eat in moderation, so they get all their nutrients while staying below their energy ceiling.

The payoff: They could pick up the extra calories for energy without having to worry about nutrition. And this allows a variety of high-calorie fun foods. Ice cream would be one possibility.

The number of discretionary calories would depend on how much people ate and how much energy they burned. Active people who are moderate eaters would have more discretionary options -- perhaps an ice cream sandwich and a bag of potato chips, at about 150 calories each. But there's a catch: People can't look for treats if they are overweight, because they already have used up their discretionary calories.

On a park bench on the National Mall, 22-year-old Rodney Carpentier of the Albany, N.Y., suburb of Ravena found some wisdom in the discretionary calorie approach. But as he ate an ice cream sandwich, Carpentier said it could be hard to get people to plan their lives around discretionary calories. ''I wouldn't stop to think about it,'' he said.

AP