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4.22.2005 ||> Hid behind the smile was saccharine
On NPR they were discussing the new USDA Food Pyramid. One caller expressed dismay at the new recommendation to eat nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day. I, on the other hand, am rejoicing. In my naively hopeful vision, I see companies making food with an emphasis on fruit and veggies instead of meat and carbs. We will all become happier, more regular members of society.
It's not all that hard to eat nine servings a day anyway. One serving is really a half cup, so really the only thing they're asking is that we eat four and a half cups a day. A large apple is a cup, a half cup of berries tastes lovely in cereal, and combined with 2 1/2 cups of salad at dinner, that's four right there. Just have a half cup of juice and you're golden.
I still do have a couple of problems with this new pyramid though. The first is that they still don't have a well-researched guide for vegetarians. The vegetarian pyramid looks a lot like the regular one except that they exchanged the meat and dairy for "fake" meat and dairy like soy milk and tofu products. While that certainly is healthy, soy is technically a legume, not a meat product and should be treated differently. Since an estimated 2.8 percent of Americans are vegetarians, that's over 7.5 million Americans who do not have an accurate nutrition guide. In the younger age brackets (25-34), the percentage goes up to ten percent. I think the USDA (and restaurants like Applebees) need to wake up on this one. And the USDA definitely needs to do more research to protect the population.
The other problem is the credibility issue. Any agency that purports to be only interested in the health and welfare of the citizenry should not be weak to the different lobbies. It's clear that both the dairy and the beef lobby scored yet more points with this new guide. When nutritionists say that three servings of milk are not necessary and that beef is not the best meat to eat to maintain a healthy diet, and both still show up on the pyramid, something is obviously awry. Shady dealings should not interfere with the public health.
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