Excavating the Food Pyramid

It took a few days for Big Media to figure out what it thought about the new USDA-issued food pyramid, but the word has now come down, and it is not entirely laudatory. The New York Times wonders why, if “only 2 percent to 4 percent (of Americans) eat according to its principles,” we even need a food pyramid. The paper points out that if the goal of issuing dietary guidelines has been to improve the health of Americans, it has not been a smashing success. In the 13 years since the pyramid was first published, obesity rates have climbed in every state.
The Washington Post offers a slightly more respectful take, and reminds us that even if people do not follow the USDA guidelines, they at least read them. According to the Post’s report, the government’s new pyramid site was overwhelmed on its first day by more than 5 million users per hour, and its companion site, which offers a database of 8,000 foods and 600 types of physical activity — was also clogged for most of its launch day. That site, the Post reports, invites users to electronically keep a record of as much as a year’s worth of food intake and physical activity. The paper quotes Margo G. Wootan, nutrition policy director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, saying that USDA “dodged the difficult political advice once again and didn’t clearly communicate what to eat less of.”
“Given that obesity is the biggest health problem facing the country,” says Wootan, “that is what is most needed to be communicated.”