How should the Food Pyramid be changed when it's updated next year?

June 23, 5:14 PMSacramento Nutrition ExaminerAnne Hart

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Shouldn't an impartial, qualified third party design 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 school textbooks, on signs displayed in healthcare centers, and prominent in 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 latest revision of the 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. See the 2010 food guidelines at The Dietary Guidelines for Americans site.

According to the site, The Dietary Guidelines are jointly issued and updated every 5 years by the Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS). They provide authoritative advice for people two years and older about how good dietary habits can promote health and reduce risk for major chronic diseases.

How to Provide Your Comments to the Dietary Guidelines Committee

The 2005 Dietary Guidelines remain the current guidance until the 2010 Dietary Guidelines are published. You even can  provide comments to the Committee. Written public comments can be submitted continuously throughout the 2010 Dietary Guidelines revision process.

To submit or view written public comments, at the bottom of The Dietary Guidelines site, there's a 'submit' icon. When you provide your original comments to the Committee, don't make any comments or attach any documents that would violate copyright laws. As far as the design of the Food Pyramid, a small figure that could be interpreted as doing exercise has been added to the current Food Pyramid that has appeared since 2005.

Do you want that figure changed for the 2010 Dietary Guidelines? The public has some say in the matter. So leave any comments at The Dietary Guidelines site, if you have some great suggestions.

Instead of illustrating what foods to emphasize, the still current (but only until 2010) Food Pyramid that first appeared in 2005 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 every new Food Pyramid is to give guidance on nutrition.

Another question is: how does the Food 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.

When will the food industry remove the dangerous neurotoxin, MSG from packaged, canned, and restaurant food? Will restaurants also reduce the amount of salt they dump into soups and other foods?

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is mistakenly used as a taste enhancer on usually overcooked or 'tired' foods that don't have left enough flavor because they've been stored a long time. Up to  40 percent of the USA population is allergic to MSG. See the articles, studies, and bibliography for reference on adverse reactions related to MSG in food at the Truth in Labeling site. Also see the article, "Monosodium Glutamate: Poison the Body to Better the Taste," at the World Wide Health Center Net site.

According to the Truth in Labeling site, "On March 13, 2009, President Obama stated, in part, that the nation’s decades-old food safety system is a 'hazard to public health.' While nominating Margaret Hamburg, M.D., the former New York Health Commissioner, for the position of FDA commissioner, he also indicated that he would be creating a Food Safety Working Group to coordinate food safety laws throughout government and to advise him on how to update them."

There are healthier, natural alternatives to MSG. Lemon, orange, cherry, or lime juice would be a better flavor enhancer. Even cooking with a small amount of organic wine (without added sulfites) is safer. MSG secretly addicts the consumer to the food by tricking the brain into thinking the food is more flavorful as it hits the taste buds on the tongue. The hidden goal is to make sure the consumer will return to the product or restaurant and order the same food again.

Instead of MSG, as a flavor enhancer, use natural, fresh food flavors, stock, or add a small amount of healthier spices, vegetables, or fruit juices without overpowering the aroma and flavor of the food. MSG is dangerous to the central nervous system. A long list of books have been written about its neurotoxicity. For your reference, a bibliography of 62  studies on the toxicity of MSG are listed at the bottom of the article, "This is What the Data Say About Monosodium Glutamate Toxicity and Human Adverse Reactions," compiled by Adrienne Samuels, Ph.D. May 2009.

You'll find MSG in salad dressings, a variety of restaurant foods, in several types of canned soups and vegetables, in various types of prepared fish or meat products, and in some bottled or canned savory sauces. Read the label before you buy the product because it's often hidden in foods you'd never think would contain MSG.

Why is MSG still listed at safe by the FDA? Will the Department of Agriculture and the FDA ever share information and connect, commit, and communicate better regarding what additives are being put in most foods? Related research is abundant.

Now you have a sounding board. Your comments will be accepted by the Department of Agriculture's Dietary Guidelines site regarding the new Food Pyramid coming out in 2010. What do you think the new guidelines might tell consumers? What would you tell the Committee?

On one side of the issue, (which would make a great debate) 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. 

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