American Beat: Pyramid Schemes

Twenty years into an obesity epidemic partly of its making, the United States Department of Agriculture is finally going to revise its recommendations for healthy eating!

At least I think so. I can't be sure from the agency's press release last week:

"USDA Calls for Public Comment on Revision of the Food Guidance System," it said. "USDA will seek written comments and hold a public meeting to provide opportunity for public input into its comprehensive review and update of the Food Guidance System." (Sure, maybe the Pentagon failed to develop the missile defense system, but I'm proud that the USDA successfully designed the food guidance system. Maybe I won't get stains when I eat spaghetti anymore.)

As it turned out, the agency was actually talking about the food pyramid, that 1992 USDA project that made us all incredibly obese.

Now, I don't want to blame the good people at the United States Department of Agriculture--their job is, after all, to support America's agriculture producers, not serve as the nation's dietician. And the food pyramid is a wonderful idea, allowing Americans to see, at one glance, what types of food--vegetables, fruits, grains, meat, poultry, etc.--they should be eating. The problem is that the existing food pyramid is as consistent with the tenets of healthy eating as downing a cup of Haagen Dazs Deep Chocolate Peanut Butter with hot fudge.

The pyramid recommends 6-11 servings per day of breads and cereals, 2-4 servings of fruit, 3-5 servings of vegetables, 2-3 servings of meat, poultry, fish or nuts, 2-3 servings of milk and cheese, and a sparing daily indulgence of "fats, oils and sweets." Experts have questioned why the pyramid treats fatty meats like bacon or bologna the same as healthy meats like fish, why it pushes milk when green, leafy vegetables offer a non-fattening source of calcium, and why Wonder bread is treated the same as a bowl of oats.