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Food Pyramid Points the Way

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 April 2005, 09:00 CDT

No doubt you've heard by now that the government has turned the food pyramid idea upside down, with 12 triangle-shaped guides for different ages and nutritional needs and a stick figure climbing up stairs on the pyramid to emphasize exercise.

But is anybody listening? Wild Oats asked more than 1,000 people, and 54 percent said they get their nutritional information from a nutritionist/dietitian and local health food stores. Only 20 percent say they get their information from the government.

If the past is any indication, then we're really in trouble. America has been facing an obesity epidemic since the food pyramid first appeared in 1992.

Having seen diet fads come and go, I'm not sure that a "new" pyramid can help. There are three reasons:

* Confusion over what we should be eating. At a conference I attended, a researcher said part of the confusion occurs because many studies are released too soon, especially if the "news" makes good sound bites. When the research is refuted or proved faulty, it's often too late to retract it.

* Fad diets. As baby boomers get older and become more interested in maintaining their weight and health, they appear to be frantically embracing the latest trend as a magic bullet. At a party a couple of years ago, a guy tried to convince me that it was better to eat foods in certain combinations. Clearly he hadn't gotten the memo: That theory went down in flames in the early '80s. But he believed it and was going to follow it - at least until he found something better.

* Even if you know what to do, it's hard to put it into practice. When people are stressed, they rarely reach for a carrot. I remember a study that said people eat more because they're too busy to do what they really need to do - get more sleep.

I tried to find the real purpose behind coming up with federal guidelines and a symbol to sum them up, a process that took four years and cost $2.4 million.

Local nutritionist Mary Lee Chin says the pyramid gives folks some parameters. The colored bands on the new pyramid give visual cues - the wider the band, for instance, the more of a food group that's recommended - so even if you don't remember specifics, you might take away the concept that you should eat more whole grains, fruits and veggies.

It's a little like the "Welcome to Kansas" sign: You might not care about Kansas, but if you're traveling to Missouri, at least you have a general idea that you're headed in the right direction.

The 1992 pyramid took a big hit from the private sector because its recommendations seemed skewed by input from various lobbying groups. Some of the concern this time is the same. Additionally, the primary way the government is disseminating the pyramid is on an interactive Web site. People without computers or computer savvy are pretty much out of luck - for now, anyway.

If you do have a computer and some time to spend, the site, mypyramid.gov, is informative and fun.

In the end, even though I know I need to eat more whole grains and certainly more vegetables, I'm not going to sit around and count servings.

Instead I'm going to hark back to what nutritionists have said all along - more variety and everything in moderation. And that doesn't require visual cues - or $2.4 million.

Source: Rocky Mountain News

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