How nutrition decisions are based on politics and food pyramids

April 8, 3:34 PMSacramento Nutrition ExaminerAnne Hart

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What political problems are Influenced by nutrition, and how does nutrition influence health and scientific issues? In reality, nutrition-related decisions are based upon politics whenever economic issues expose conflicts of interest. Who governs and standardizes nutritional information and research in the USA? Is this question as ambiguous as asking who raises the price of gasoline? Politics is about responsibility.

The biggest political issue in nutrition is that the general public doesn’t read the results of studies published in medical and nutrition research journals. And the terminology and ongoing results are not explained clearly in plain language in enough general consumer publications.

Viewing equally both sides of the issue, actually, the politics of nutrition refers to the internally conflicting interrelationships among people in a society who maneuver within a group to obtain power and control. The politics of nutrition emphasizes the methods, strategies, and tactics involved in managing, administrating, and controlling internal and external affairs of what eventually gets emphasized to consumers.

Theoretically, nutrition-related decisions should be based on impartial hard scientific evidence. Credible evidence is vulnerable to being shown to be flawed by additional research.

Politics of the Food Pyramid

The Department of Agriculture, for example, is in charge of designing and updating the Food Pyramid that appears all over the USA in most textbooks and publications on nutrition. The function of the Department of Agriculture is to promote the agricultural products of the USA and to offer guidance to consumers. Here, the issue and conflict of interest is caught between the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture to offer nutrition-related guidance and the Department of Agriculture’s economic interest.

The conflict of interest is one of commitment. Is the Department of Agriculture committed to supporting its own agricultural-economic interests or committed to offering unbiased nutritional guidance? Who should be in charge of designing the Food Pyramid?

When a consumer looks at the new Food Pyramid, the first item noticed is the lack of guidance on what particular food items should be emphasized, and which items should be eaten in very small amounts. What’s controversial about the new Food Pyramid is that information is missing about what foods should be eaten more and which foods should be eaten less.

A small figure that could be interpreted as doing exercise is added. Instead of what foods to emphasize, the new Food Pyramid now directs the eyes to a figure walking uphill. At first glance, the consumer may understand exercise is good, but how much? No guidance is given as exercise is individualized.

Which food items should be emphasized? This too, must be individualized, customized, and tailored to one’s metabolism and even one’s genetic signature—about which the average consumer probably would not immediately think when briefly glancing at the Food Pyramid. However, the mission of the new Food Pyramid is to give guidance on nutrition.

Another question is how does the Pyramid guide those on special diets? Economic trends are what influence the design of nutrition programs. Conflicts of interest between economic, political, and scientific forces may shape the design of studies, charts, tables, and research.

On one side of the issue, the Department of Agriculture is thought of by some academics and critics to be in need of a crisis public relations campaign because of its focus on nutritional politics and economics causing conflicts of interest. That main conflict is between giving guidance and serving economic interests.

From the other side of the issue, consumers see a new Food Pyramid emphasizing exercise instead of emphasizing which particular foods should be consumed in larger or smaller amounts. The main issue is: Should the same group that designs nutritional visuals offering public advice also be required to promote and publicize huge numbers of agricultural products of the USA? Or should the promotion of USA-grown agricultural products be handed to a marketing and advertising agency?

Other political issues in nutrition focus on the competition between vegetables and fruits grown in the USA and the competing proliferation of edible imports from other lands seen in the larger, chain supermarkets. Issues also include questions as to what pesticides that are banned in the USA were used in other lands, or what type of bacteria may be on the green onions or sprouts from a location commonly using human waste as fertilizer.

A division of labor appears to be what consumers hope will avoid those conflicts of interest. As to the new Food Pyramid, current information about what products and produce are healthiest to emphasize and in which amounts are what consumers and nutritionists would like to see. Politics are dependent upon economic forces driving the various interest groups and agencies in power. Controversies arise when interests clash. Whether public interest groups clash over nutrition guidance or cultures clash over habits, behind the conflict of interest is the politics of economics.

Another important political issue in the field of nutrition is the debate about which types of food are healthiest. The food table published by the government’s Department of Agriculture includes carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. The reason why fat becomes a political issue is because not enough information is provided in the newest food table published by the Department of Agriculture concerning which sources of proteins, fats, dairy products, and grains are healthiest.