Posted on 04/21/2005 12:56:31 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON, April 19 - The old food pyramid was turned on its side and outfitted with stairs on Tuesday, as the federal government unveiled its latest effort to offer instant nutrition advice to Americans.
The new program, MyPyramid, was hailed by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns as a customized, interactive food guidance system. Critics, though, said it was likely to be as ineffective as the old pyramid.
"MyPyramid is about the ability of Americans to personalize their approach when choosing a healthier lifestyle that balances nutrition and exercise," Mr. Johanns said at a news conference. "Many Americans can dramatically improve their overall health by making modest improvements to their diets and by incorporating regular physical activity into their daily lives."
The Agriculture Department says that 80 percent of Americans recognized the 1992 pyramid. But Mr. Johanns acknowledged that few followed its recommendations.
Eric M. Bost, the Agriculture Department's under secretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, said that 65 percent of adults ages 20 to 74 are overweight, with nearly half of that group obese.
"It became clear," Mr. Johanns said, "that we needed to do a much better job of communicating the nutrition messages so that Americans could understand how to begin making positive changes in their lifestyles. And, of course, another thing is very obvious: the science has evolved since 1992, with additional research on issues including the nutritional content of foods and food consumption patterns."
Like its predecessor, the revised pyramid and its Web site, www.mypyramid.gov, are based on the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published in January by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture. The 1992 pyramid outlined the portions Americans should eat, from the most at the base (grains) to the least at the apex (fats, oils and sugars). It was criticized as being broad and vague; it recommended, for instance, that people eat 6 to 12 servings of grains, without explaining who should eat 6 servings versus 12, and without identifying a serving size.
This time, the pyramid is a series of vertical color bands of varying widths. The bands of fruits and vegetables combined take up the most space, followed by grains, with the narrowest bands still belonging to fats, oils and sugars. Also new is the stick figure walking up the left side of the pyramid to match the guide's slogan: "Steps to a healthier you."
The new pyramid comes in 12 versions, depending on a person's activity level and caloric need.
"One pyramid does not fit all of us," Mr. Johanns said, "so we created 12 different ones."
At the news conference, Mr. Johanns emphasized moderation and even turned to the fitness celebrity Denise Austin, a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, to push the exercise component.
But there are only hints about eating less of anything, like the suggestion to "know the limits on fats, sugars and salt (sodium)."
"The pyramid is incredible to me," said Dr. Carlos Arturo Camargo Jr., an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and a member of the dietary guidelines advisory committee. "The whole concept of replacing unhealthy food with healthy food is very hard to find. I'm pretty skeptical this graphic is going to produce many healthy people except for some highly motivated ones."
In an early draft of the pyramid by the international marketing firm Porter Novelli, which was hired for $2.5 million to create a suitable symbol, the pinnacle was topped by the word "occasionally" for foods like pastries; "daily" was the word for foods at the base, like whole-wheat bread.
Porter Novelli referred all calls to the Agriculture Department, which would not comment on the disappearance of this information, saying it was not the agency's pyramid.
"What they've done is remove any of the eat-less suggestions," said Dr. Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University and managing editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report. "It's all about moderation and personal responsibility."
Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, echoed that sentiment. "Basically, I don't think the graphic itself is much of an advance at all except that it shows physical activity," Dr. Willett said. "It's somewhat disappointing that a lot of what was in the guidelines is not readily conveyed in what I've seen so far."
The goal of the pyramid program was to condense the 70-page Dietary Guidelines into a graphic that would be useful to the public; the Web site was designed to help consumers personalize the guidelines. To learn exactly how many cups of vegetables the government recommends, for example, consumers must submit their age, sex and level of daily exercise to the Web site.
But the Agriculture Department has no budget to promote the Dietary Guidelines or the pyramid. Instead, it plans to rely on marketing by the food industry and dissemination of information by nutritionists, physicians and organizations interested in promoting good health. The Grocery Manufacturers of America, for example, plans to use inserts in the Weekly Reader newspapers for children in the fourth through sixth grades.
Alison Kretser, an official with the grocery association, said that using the food industry to get out the message "is the passing of the baton to the food industry to help educate Americans to make small changes to meet the guidelines."
Where is the Big Mac section on the pyramid?
Remember the good old days when we just had the 4 food groups?
Good question!!!!!!!!
Classic case of government hacks justifiying huge salaries and college degress on dribble.
That milk section must've been paid for by the dairy industry. Just about everyone I know is lactose intolerant, and I've found that overdoing milk products (more than about 1/2 cup a day) makes my joints ache like hell. 3 cups a day would kill me.
LQ
I think the key words here are "latest effort". The Government only lists dietary rules long enough to realize they're wrong. (My latests effort to be a brain surgeon includes buying a hospital gown; according to Government standards, I have suceeded in my efforts.)
I'll use the one with a wide band of chocolate.
Weird isn't it? That problem seems to be increasing - or are we just becoming more aware of it?
"Where is the Big Mac section on the pyramid?"
"Good question!!!!!!!!"
Stop it you're making me hungry.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Just about everyone I know is lactose intolerant,
Thank God, for a moment I was thinking about a revised Food 'Chain'!
I like being on the top of the Food Chain, and they can play with the Food Pyramid all they want.:)
OK where is my CPK?
And why isn't there one in the part of Texas I'm in now?? :(
Forget the Big Mac! Where is the Hardee's thick burger?
That wasn't that long ago. The pyramid hasn't been around too much more than a decade.
whoa, that looks pretty darn good!
I think it's actually increasing, like peanut allergy is in children. I'm 36 and have been in Houston my whole life, and I never met one child who was allergic to peanuts.
I still think that way, and think it's better than the new weird vertically sliced pyramid. I think the new recommendations, though, are dead on, and amazingly accurate and commonsense for a government creation.
The new website for this has lots of info and interactive food and exercise trackers normally found only on pay sites. It's painfully slow and buggy, though, as is to be expected from employees who can't be fired.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.