The USDA Food Pyramid - rebuild desperately needed

A pyramid is fat at the base and a point at the top. You can see one layer on top of the next down. The food pyramid use to be like this then in 2005 everything went haywire - no more layers. It looks as if the 2005 change to the food pyramid was a triumph of lobbying rather than a step forward in nutrition and health. So how might the food pyramid get back to being a pyramid that helps. There are lots of ideas for rebuilding the pyramid and below are just a few. Click on each pyramid image to get a larger version showing details.

Rebuild the pyramid like this ?

Or like this ?

Definitely NOT where we are now with the 2005 version:



The Food Pyramid promoted by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is encouraging Americans to eat more, eat the wrong things and become unhealthier in the process. At every step along the food pyramid has been wrong:

• In the 1992 version the advice was to minimize fat and eat lots of carbs
• the 2005 version has a different graphic but is just as bad. There's emphasis on whole grain and exercise but at bottom it's the same.

What do the health and nutrition experts say ?

• Tufts advice can be summed up as "Don't rock the boat, work within the system." It's hoping that the next update of government dietary guidelines due out in 2010 will fix the problems. In 2008 USDA is releasing MyPyramid Menu Planner which will give very detailed advice on how to eat more than you need to. If your objective is to improve your health, get leaner, build some strength and muscle then MyPyramid Menu Planner is going to take you in the opposite direction.
• Mayo Clinic has brought back the layered pyramid but this time fruits and vegetables are at the bottom as your basic food. If you really want to lose weight the Mayo Clinic has some solid advice - "eat less." Now this advice is wrapped up just a little. The Mayo idea is to look at your present weight and give a calories per day to lose weight:

Weight in pounds: 250 or less then calories per day 1200 (women), 1400 (men)
Weight in pounds: 251 to 300 then calories per day 1400 (women), 1600 (men)
Weight in pounds: 301 or more then calories per day 1600 (women), 1800 (men).

• Walter Willett and Meir Stampfer are forthright that having USDA look after nutritional guidelines for the USA is craziness. In their words "The food pyramid should be rebuilt in a setting that is well insulated from political and economic interests." They lay out a better food pyramid as shown at the top of this blog.