The Government's Food Pyramid Correlates to Obesity, Critics Say

[Guest guest]

The Wall Street Journal

 

June 13, 2002

HEALTH

The Government's Food Pyramid Correlates to Obesity, Critics Say

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By JILL CARROLL

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

With obesity reaching epidemic proportions in the U.S., some critics say

it's the government's food pyramid that should go on a diet.

The pyramid, dating from 1991, pictorially reflects the U.S. Department of

Agriculture's guidelines on what Americans should eat every day to maintain a

healthy weight. From a broad base of six to 11 servings of food in the

grains-and-carbohydrates group, the pyramid narrows upward to fewer servings of

vegetables and fruits, to fewer still of such foods as milk and meat. Finally,

at the pyramid's pointed top are fats, oils and sweets, which consumers are

advised to " eat sparingly. "

While the government has stood by this regimen for 11 years, some critics

say it's no coincidence that the number of overweight Americans has risen 61%

since the pyramid was introduced -- and almost instantaneously appeared on the

sides of pasta boxes, bread wrappers and packages of other food products in

the pyramid's six-to-11-servings category.

David S. Ludwig, an obesity researcher at Children's Hospital in Boston,

says the pyramid and guidelines focus too much on reducing fat. He says people

are getting fat because they are eating too many refined carbohydrates, such

as those in white bread, that make them feel hungrier later so they overeat.

The habitual consumption of foods with refined carbohydrates " may increase

risk for obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, " he wrote in a May

article

in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Steven Christensen, an official at the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy

and Promotion, says the pyramid represents guidelines for healthy eating -- not

the next fad diet. " It wasn't meant as a way to reduce your weight, but if

you eat this way, you're going to be all right. "

The debate is particularly relevant in that the USDA currently is reviewing

its dietary guidelines, as it does every five years. It's an exercise that

attracts not only critics from the world of medicine but industry lobbyists and

those promoting the virtues of various food groups and diets.

During the last revision, the advisory committee considered changing the

1995 recommendation of adhering to a diet " moderate " in salt and sugar to

" eating less salt and sugar. " The powerful sugar industry fought the change,

and

the guidelines now tell consumers to " moderate your intake of sugars. " (The

" less salt " revision stuck.)

Unlike the guidelines, the pyramid isn't reviewed periodically. But the USDA

decided recently to review the pyramid's serving sizes and try to make the

depiction clearer for the guide's 10th anniversary -- an exercise that has

produced a flood of suggestions.

Among the most vocal of the pyramid's critics is Walter Willett, chairman of

the Harvard School for Public Health's nutrition department. " The pyramid

really ignored 40 years of data and condemned all fats and oils, " he says.

While the pyramid indicates that only fat calories count, Dr. Willet says,

" calories are calories. "

He and other critics say the government's focus on reducing calories from

fat has helped propel sales of low-fat foods that still pack a lot of calories

-- SnackWell cookies, for example, and potato chips made with the fake fat

Olestra. " That probably has contributed to the explosion in obesity, " says Dr.

Willett, who is an unpaid consultant on a clinical trial comparing low-fat

and low-carbohydrate diets. The trial is funded by the Robert C. Atkins

Foundation, which advocates the Atkins low-carbohydrate diet.

But many mainstream dieticians argue that the Atkins low-carbohydrate diet

is dangerous because it has too much fat and that cutting out any food group

isn't healthy. Plus, there have been no long-term studies on the effects of

the diet and whether people can keep the weight off.

Some experts think other parts of the pyramid need changes as well. Some

suggest beans be removed from the meat category, where they are placed because

of their protein content, and moved to the vegetable category. If

bottled-water companies get the government to issue specific advice to drink

more water

in the 2005 guidelines, as they are trying to do, that, too, could alter the

pyramid.

And then there is exercise.

" What I would like to see chiseled in the side of the pyramid are steps " and

someone running up them to emphasize exercise, says Alice Lichtenstein, a

professor of nutrition at Tufts University in Boston and a member of the

committee that drew up the 2000 dietary guidelines. While the 40-page

dietary-guidelines booklet advocates physical activity, the pyramid has no such

message.

Ms. Lichtenstein also says the dairy products pictured on the pyramid should

be designated as low-fat or nonfat. " There's probably no one over the age of

two that needs full fat [dairy products], " she says.

It will be years before all the complaints are weighed, but the USDA, at

least for now, doesn't seem inclined to abandon the basic premise that a

low-fat

diet is healthiest. " You can't pinpoint the cause of obesity … to

carbohydrates, " says the USDA's Mr. Christensen.

Beyond the debate over fats and carbohydrates, many nutrition experts say

the pyramid needs to better define serving size to be effective. Most people

don't realize that one USDA-size grain serving is about the size of a

minibagel, says Marion Nestle, chairman of the Department of Nutrition and Food

Studies at New York University. She also says the pyramid " emphases grain

products

too heavily without specifying whole grains ... They're not talking about

white bread. "

Suzanne Murphy, a nutrition researcher at the University of Hawaii and vice

chairman of the advisory panel that wrote the 2000 dietary guidelines,

worries that consumers don't realize that all foods within a food group are not

equally healthy. She is concerned consumers look at the recommended six-to-11

grain servings and " think that means six to 11 servings of cakes and cookies. "

Meanwhile, consumers are trying to sort through the conflicting messages.

" Every year they come up with a style for the way people should eat … if you

go

by their [advice] you'll go crazy, " says Roy Thompson, 50 years old, as he

finishes a recent lunch at a Sbarro's pizza restaurant in Washington.

A few tables away, Marilyn Maxwell, 62, has ordered pasta and salad. Is she

an adherent of the food pyramid? " I really don't pay a bit of attention to

it, " she says.

Write to Jill Carroll at jill.carroll

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