Food Pyramid, USDA vs. HHS:
The Food Pyramid and Dietary Guidelines for Americans are created in a sub-agency of the US Dept. of Agriculture. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald introduced a bill a few years ago to take responsibility for governmental nutritional advice to the public away from the USDA and give it to the Dept. of Health and Human Services. Seems logical, since that agency’s charter is to promote health among US citizens. The USDAs charter is to benefit the US farming and agribusiness industry, and is judged on how much food is produced and consumed. They have a fundamental conflict of interest, and one side has a lot deeper pockets than the other.
The Food Pyramid and Dietary Guidelines for Americans are created in a sub-agency of the US Dept. of Agriculture. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald introduced a bill a few years ago to take responsibility for governmental nutritional advice to the public away from the USDA and give it to the Dept. of Health and Human Services. Seems logical, since that agency’s charter is to promote health among US citizens. The USDAs charter is to benefit the US farming and agribusiness industry, and is judged on how much food is produced and consumed. They have a fundamental conflict of interest, and one side has a lot deeper pockets than the other.
Also, there's a whole separate issue of how good the current food pyramid is, given that it is a product of many competing interests, not all of which have the health of Americans as their top priority. Attached is my analysis of the Food Pyramid, including comment on Dr. Walter Willett's (Harvard) alternative pyramid, and my suggestions for making it better. Please share your optimal Pyramid, or circle or whatever it shoud be!
Attached File(s)
--------------------
~Michael
It is sad that so many
It is sad that so many millions of Americans still use the USDA Food
Pyramid as a guideline for making what they think are healthy food choices and it's sad that health care professionals promote its use. It really is based on agriculture subsidies and industry lobbyiest clout, not health.
I found a group of pyramids designed by Udo Eramus that I like. Here is
the link:
http://www.udoerasmus.com/pyramid/pyr_index.htm
Teri G
Food Guides are so confusing,
BTW, a good critique of how the Food Pyramid came into existence is in Marion Nestle's book, Food Politics. Most of you have probably read it. I love the bit in there about the meat producers not liking the proposed wording about eating less meat so they lobbied to have the wording changed to "choose lean meats" or some other equally euphamistic phrase.
In Canada, they use a Food Rainbow:
http://26490.vws.magma.ca/view_eatwell_vue_bienmang_e.pdf
Mike Adams "The Health Ranger" is a vegetarian who uses the following guide:
http://www.truthpublishing.com/honestfoodg...nt-cat21281.htm
And, finally, there is this Concentric Circles Food Guide from Northern California's Ed Bauman: http://www.baumancollege.org/
(Scroll down to find it.)
Finally, I did a food guide curriculum for pre-schoolers last year and told them, "if there is a rainbow on your plate, there is a rainbow in your tummy." A good idea for parents is to try to make sure there is a food from each color of the rainbow each day, not necessarily at every meal. My kids comment on the colors on their plate now. This manages against the evil mealtime mantra of mac & cheese - at other kids' houses, of course! The orange in that one doesn't even count, since all cheese is white now that (most) cattle don't graze on grass anymore, but that's a little hard to explain to kids...
Those are the alternative guides that come to mind. Maybe they will spark some creativity for you, Michael. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
- Alix
www.mednauseum.blogspot.com
www.mednauseum.com
--------------------
Specialist in Food Intolerance & Nutrition for Chronic Illness
California
www.mednauseum.blogspot.com
www.inconvenienthealth.com
The Secretary of Education
Anyway, the Secretary of Education did not even know, and the Food Pyramid is the main tool used to educate kids about nutrition. She of course assumed it was HHS, because that's the only place it makes sense, so its hard to blame her. Here's the clip of her, and then my old comments:
http://www.shadowtv.com/redirect/notificat...429502de1101f54
The Food Pyramid and Dietary Guidelines for Americans are created in a sub-agency of the US Dept. of Agriculture. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald introduced a bill a few years ago to take responsibility for governmental nutritional advice to the public away from the USDA and give it to the Dept. of Health and Human Services. Seems logical, since that agency’s charter is to promote health among US citizens. The USDAs charter is to benefit the US farming and agribusiness industry, and is judged on how much food is produced and consumed. They have a fundamental conflict of interest, and one side has a lot deeper pockets than the other.
http://www.mypyramid.gov/
--------------------
Hi Michael- I watched the
I watched the show too- she wasn't too impressive was she? As far as the USDA pyramid goes, the more we learn -doesn't it seem like the one size fits all pyramid concept should be retired? It is so misleading.
My Mom met with a RD a couple of months ago to establish a lipid control diet. She had to make the request to see the RD- her physician simply wanted to prescribe Lipitor without addressing dietary factors/therapies. She sent me copies of the dietary recommendations and in large it was a written version of the pyramid- 6 to 9 servings of carbs daily, mostly"from whole grains, made up the bulk of the energy And this is for a small woman trying to reduce triglyceride levels and increase HDL.
Thanks for posting this stuff- it shows how out of whack things are in Washington.
Teri