The new food pyramid schemes
Health & Fitness with Bill Hauda If you thought government recommendations on what you should eat are determined solely by scientists working in cloistered laboratories, you better think again. It's
pretty clear diet suggestions are economic and political, as well as scientific.
Remember the food pyramid? We were all exposed to it in school. It was supposed to advise us on what foods to eat more of and what foods to minimize. Foods on the top were supposed to be taken sparingly (fats, oils, sweets, meats). Those on the bottom (bread, cereal, rice and pasta) were supposed to be the staples for a healthy body. If we followed it, we were told, we would be healthy people.
Long accepted
by schools, nutritionists and others for decades, the good old food pyramid is now being questioned. It may get a substantial face lift. The USDA wants to revamp it to reflect the most recent evidence about the best American diet. The problem is what is touted as best may depend to some degree on who has the biggest political and economic muscle.
The food pyramid is based on recommendations of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Every five years, the agency is supposed to
revise dietary guidelines. These rules form the basis for school lunches and other nutritional programs, which impact on what our kids eat.
This time the question of what to eat has become really complicated. There is an Atkins diet, a South Beach diet and lots of other regimes. There is a growing obesity epidemic, with more Americans overweight than ever before. There is also big money at stake segments of the $500 billion food industry, and even the economies of some nations who depend
on production of certain products, may be put at risk when the government decides which food is good and which is bad.
Interest groups are already lobbying the government. For example, advocates of the low-carbohydrate Atkins diet are writing letters urging the government to cut back on recommended carbs in the new pyramid. They want proteins, vegetables and dairy products emphasized.
At Harvard, the university's public health and medical schools have designed their own pyramid. They
emphasize exercise, whole grains and plant oils, such as olive and soy and want a cutback in foods like white rice, potatoes and pasta.
Faced with pressures to minimize or exclude their products, industry is fighting back. The American Bakers Association and North American Millers' Association represent companies with $60 billion in annual sales. Because those sales have fallen under pressure from the low-carb diet advocates, the industry groups are launching a campaign called "Bread:
It's Essential" to present bread as wholesome again.
Lobbying to make sure their products get fair consideration are other industry groups like the U.S. Potato Board, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and the California Walnut Association. The chocolate and walnut producers have even been exhibiting in food fairs at meetings like the American Heart Association convention.
Groups like the National Dairy Council are pushing for
increased recommendations for dairy products. Other associations representing everything from fish to nuts are hard at work to get their share of the pyramid.
And, if you thought the debate over the shape of the food pyramid was the only food debate going on, you can think again on that one, too. Although there are areas in the world in which getting enough food of any kind is problematic due to excessive population, corrupt governments, poor soils, famine or war, the obesity problem is
worldwide. It is not just a condition of the ugly American, it affects most countries so the World Health Organization is also getting into the food debate.
WHO recently proposed reducing sugar, fat and salt in processed foods, controlling food marketing to children and improving nutritional labeling and health education. It also suggested longer-term approaches, such as better urban planning to make walking and cycling more popular.
One thing I especially liked was a suggestion to
encourage video games to be powered by a bicycle. It made me recall an eccentric cyclist who moved to the outback in Australia. Electric power lines did not reach his modest cabin. If he wanted to watch TV, listen to the radio or even read a book at night, he had to get on a stationary bike and pedal to generate electricity.
That guy was not fat. He was not a part of the obesity epidemic. If there is anything that has helped to make people fat, it is TV, computers and video games the
physical requirements of which are limited to pushing a button, moving a mouse or handling a joystick.
What is fascinating about the WHO proposal is that it overcame intense opposition by nations such as Brazil. Brazil is a major producer of sugar, and anything to reduce international sugar sales would adversely impact that country's economy.
Refined sugars such as cane or corn syrup are an ingredient in many foods. Unless you are an athlete consuming thousands of calories per day in
training, getting the bulk of your daily energy in that form is certain to make you fat.
I'm not a dietitian, but I watch my diet. I think diet is basic science. Your intake has to roughly equal what you expend. If it's less, you will lose weight; if you take in more than you expend, you get fat. And you have to make sure what you eat contains the nutrients, vitamins and minerals your body needs. That pretty much rules out sugar-laden candy and desserts.
A longtime running companion of
mine once said the reason he ran every day was so he could eat whatever he wanted. That's also what got me to initially push away from the dinner table and get out the door. I wanted to eat that extra piece of pie and not get fat. In the process, I discovered there are many other and more important reasons to run and cycle and all the pieces of pie simply died a natural death in the process.
So, I have a recommendation for the government. While the food pyramid is a nostalgic trip back to
our days in high school and in its latest form might provide someone with diet guidance, it's incomplete. Let's not get bogged down on only what is and what is not the best or worst food. Let's not just try to tell our kids what to eat. Let's teach them how to burn off those calories that come from even the so-called good carbohydrates, fats or proteins, whatever the government decides those are.
We can't ship them off to a cabin in the outback with no electric power, but there are other
things we can do. Let's give them a reason to get out running, bicycling or having fun in other vigorous, energy-expending ways. What we need instead of another old-style food pyramid is a Pyramid of Life, the basis of which is not food, but exercise.
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