The Government's Pyramid Scheme

The Department of Agriculture unveiled its new and improved food pyramid last week, and a predictable onslaught of jokes followed.

The pyramid, an illustration of dietary guidelines that has adorned cereal boxes and bread wrappers for more than a decade, now comes in 12 versions to guide Americans more precisely about their nutritional needs. But, the joke goes, why did the U.S.D.A. leave out the Saturday night version? Martinis, steak and cigarettes.

snip...

Perhaps, others argue, the answer lies not in science and policy but in the basics: good food eaten in moderation with family and friends.

Writes Harvey Hartman, a Seattle-area market researcher and author, in a commentary on MyPyramid: "Perhaps it's time to give our science a much-needed breather and meditate on what it really means to live and eat together, as humans - in sync not with the regression outputs of biostatisticians but with rhythms and rituals of social life."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/weekinreview/24seve.html?pagewanted=1

I don't know if this got posted in other forums over the weekend. But I really liked the last two paragraphs of the article and thought others here might agree with the conclusion.

All of them, because they're all based on a diet that does make me fat. I cannot eat 2000 calories a day. If I do, I'm asking for morbid obesity.

I do like the food tracking sheets they have on the website, since they make it easy for people to work out what they're eating and how.

Another worry I have about the food pyramid and such is that it emphasizes individual meals, which damage the continuity of the family. I know that I am a lot happier when DH and eat together and that the girls I work with do better when they eat in a communal group.

http://www.mypyramid.gov/downloads/worksheets/Worksheet_2000_18.pdf

with hypoglycemia. I did the Zone for a while after that, which helped correct the problems I was having with my blood sugar. Currently, I eat a diet lower in protein than the Zone and feel great.

Plus, as you point out, everyone is different and one single diet won't work for us all.

I tried to follow the pyramid for years and

1) I was always hungry, even after I ate, esp a plate of pasta or any baked goods.

2) I gained about 30 lbs. That's a lot for someone who is only 5 feet tall to start with.

Bear in mind, when I was a kid, I had no problems keeping a relatively healthy weight. It's not all calories in; activity out. I have a heart condition which prevents me from being as active as I might otherwise be. Although I am motivated, I can only exercise so much.

For my 40th birthday three years ago, I started Atkins. Out with the pasta, out with the white rice, out with the breads, all of which I LOVE. But once I started Atkins, just focusing on protein and low glycemic veggies, then later, l-g fruits and nuts, I realized I had gone back to eating the way I did as a child. IIRC, the only bread I ate was what we made, usually once a week for Sunday dinner rolls. I didn't eat bread everyday anyway.

I can now look forward to managing my weight within my ability to exercise. And I don't feel hungry anymore, either.

Its called eating a balanced diet. No fads (even there's ... uh ... 'scientific' proof of its efficacy).

I lost weight by just reducing the quantity of things I normally eat.

I find that 1300 calories is enough. More than that, and I don't feel right. Less than that, and I get zoney and absent minded.

I could never do Atkins; I have serious ethical issues with a diet that encourages eating meat to excess when there are starving people on the planet, and I really have a problem with a diet that says a pound of bacon is fine, but an apple is not.

I don't get enough milk, though I do get 3 servings of dairy a day if I count cheese. That's about my only failing, and that's one I'm trying to fix (without resorting to the bribe of a chocolate chip cookie or a mocha latte.)

Besides, I know who pays for the DoD press releases and funds research: the contracting companies. Why should I believe that the Dept of Ag is any different when I know they hand out large subsidies and get big help from the factory farmers? They haven't behaved well enough when it comes to farm preservation to get my trust, so I'm not letting them tell me what to put in my body.

the 4 food groups to the pyrmid obesity has grown big time. What works for me is eat when I am hungry--when my stomach is grumbling. And only eat until I am not hungry anymore. If you eat this way you can have cake, ice cream, pizza, whatever. Just don't eat it if you are not physically hungry.

As I have noted before, I have a niece who is a very picky eater to the point of actually affecting her health. She's almost 13. After looking at the new pyramid, I got out a four-cup Pyrex measuring cup and told her that she would have to eat THAT MUCH fruits and vegetables (actually 4 1/2 cups) to be properly nourished, plus 5 ounces of meat, 7 slices of wheat bread (or an equivalent), and three dairy servings. Her eyes bugged out. We continually nag her about her fruits and vegetables, but this was a visual she could not ignore.

I'm hoping it will help.

Also, the other day I was at her middle school for a talent show. I was stunned to see so many overweight kids. A good 3/5 of them taking the stage had spare tires and bulges. Not just allover babyfat, but overweight.

I am always amazed at how many kids in their age range are fat. Not just the adorable poking out bellies of little kids, but rolls of fat.

I have thought about this problem alot. And I blame the media to some degree for this problem (big surprise).

Parents fear for their children, want nothing more than to keep them safe. The media sensationalizes everything, including risks to kids. So parents are always in a heightened state of concern for their kids, fed by media hysteria. And it is safer and easier to keep your kids inside, in front of the TV or video games than it is to let them out to explore the natural world.

An example, West Nile came to my part of the world a few years ago. So now in addition to sun and child molesters, we have to mortally fear....... mosquito bites. Every night on the local news "West Nile, West Nile, West Nile, Be Afraid, Be Afraid, Be Afraid......" So that is one more reason to keep the kidlets inside, in front of the tube. If they go outside, the might get a mosquito bite and they could DIE!

When I was a kid, I walk 1 mile to school everyday from the time I was in first grade. By myself. We played outside everyday, unattended. I cannot image letting my kids do those things, I am too scared. So they spend some amount of time in front of the TV, just so I can get some work done.

A little off topic, but that is at least one of the reasons kids are so sedentary these days. Improving diets would definitely help, too.

DEET applied at 5:30 will prevent mosquito bites until bedtime (since the buggers feed at sunset, primarily.) Sunscreen applied in the morning will generally prevent burns unless the subject is like me, and burns under incandescent bulbs. (And kids like me figure out how to apply sunscreen very early and to do so often.)

The girls I work with - and their parents - are encouraged to be active and their parents to not be overprotective (since there's some evidence that overprotectiveness in parents can lead to the cultural background that is conducive to eating disorders and compulsive disorders. It may be correlational, though. We're still investigating.) I go through this with every new client: not just about bugs and sun, but about pregnancy, disease, drugs, slacking, vandalism, murder, kidnapping.... I send most of them home with homework: Read Barry Glassner's Fear. (He debunks most myths about threats that the media are so good about promoting.)

The facts don't support most of our fears: kids are far more likely to be abused, abducted or molested by someone we know than by a stranger. Obesity, depression and boredom damage far more kids and families than do abductions. Sometimes we have to bite the bullet, stop letting the MSM implant our fears, and resist our protective urges.

Do realize I work with tweens and teenagers; while I walked or biked to school by myself from the time I was in 2nd grade, I would not advocate that for a kindergartner; however, when my sister was in first grade (I was in 4th) I walked her to and from school every day, and when she was in third grade, she started doing the same for our baby sister, who was in kindergarten. I was in middle school by that time, so not available. So with older sibling supervision, I'm cautiously in favor of it; totally depending on the route, of course....