| When there's a lot of corruption, you get a food guide pyramid like we have today. It's basically saying, "Eat more of everything, eat less of nothing."
Given that we're already overweight and obese, and given that our population already cannot make good decisions about how to buy nutritious foods, how is that message supposed to improve things? "Eat more of everything, eat less of nothing, drink more milk, and eat more meat." How is this supposed to make people healthier?
I'm going to make a wild prediction here. |
| In fact, the whole new food guide pyramid can basically be summed up in four words: Eat more of everything. That is the USDA's message. That's right, we as Americans are basically supposed to eat more meat, drink more milk, eat more grains. Then somewhere in the fine print, it says, "Know your limits." Oh, like Americans know their limits. If we knew our limits, we wouldn't be diseased right now. We wouldn't be obese, and two-thirds of the population wouldn’t be overweight.
End the food politics corruption
Let's talk about what limits there should be. |
| They first pretended to do that with the old version of the "Food Guide Pyramid," which was basically an advertisement for the grain industry. It said, "Everybody eat more grains!" And people did, and now we're all diseased.
So they came up with a new one in the Spring of 2005, and the new one is basically the "Milk Pyramid." It's the "Milk and Meat Pyramid." There are still quite a lot of grains thrown in there too. Of course, this remains useless to people. It's less useful than the old one, because they took out all the pictures of food for some reason. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 By applying these two rules, you can weed out perhaps 90% of all the bad health advice out there (like the absurd food guide pyramid constructed by the USDA in order to sell more agricultural products) and educate yourself with the remaining 10%. In short order, you'll be healthier than 90% of the population -- the same 90% that still listen to the advice of their doctor and believe everything they hear in televised drug ads, by the way. |
Kelly Harford, M.C., C.N.C.
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 For example, I thought I'd found the answer to why two-thirds of the population of America is overweight when I first saw the government's former food guide pyramid which recommends eating 6 'servings' of grains a day, a seemingly enormous amount. Then I learned that these guidelines define a serving as only Vi cup, which helped to put
The body was designed to run on real foods; a natural foods diet is the ultimate direction in eating for all of us, no matter exactly how we shape it. |
Michele Simon
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 MyPyramid, Our Problem
Four months later, in April 2005, the federal government revealed its much-anticipated revision of the "Food Guide Pyramid"—that peculiar icon of nutrition advice that adorns cereal boxes and not much else. While the dietary guidelines are the written recommendations for how we should eat, the pyramid is a pictorial representation of the nutrition rules. According to the USDA's own surveys, most people (80 percent) recognize the triangular graphic, but only a sobering 2 to 4 percent actually follow its principles. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 The USDA, one of the great misguided agencies of modern government, has given us the food guide pyramid that offers us nutritionally worthless advice, heavily influenced by private industry, especially the dairy industry, and now the agency claims to be protecting us from mad cow disease (but really is just protecting the cattle industry).
No surprise there -- a lot of people in high-level positions at the USDA are from the cattle industry. It's similar to the FDA, where top officials are ex-drug company executives. |
Richard Beliveau, Ph.D. and Denis Gingras, Ph.D.
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 This is the reason that North American and European public health documents such as the FDA's food guide pyramid recommend eating five daily servings of fruits and vegetables as part of a balanced diet intended to maintain good health. Since energy supply is the main objective pursued by Western diet, we should not be surprised that the latter is based for the most part on the consumption of proteins and animal fats, such as red meat and milk products, while foods with fewer calories, such as fruits and vegetables, occupy a place of less importance. |
Michael T. Murray
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 Well, first of all, your doctor has most likely never talked to you at all about diet; if he or she has, it was likely only in general terms—stay away from sugar, cut down on the amount of saturated fat, try to eat more high-protein foods, and so on—or perhaps your doctor gave you a brochure on the food guide pyramid. We are going to make very specific recommendations here to provide you with the absolute best diet to battle diabetes based on our Optimal Health Food Pyramid (see Chapter 5, page 103) as summarized in Table 7.1. |
| What the pyramid doesn't tell you, though, is that you are setting yourself up for insulin resistance, obesity, and adult-onset diabetes if you consistently make poor choices in this important category.
The food guide pyramid does not take into consideration the glycemic index (GI) of foods. This term, introduced in Chapter 4, refers to how quickly blood sugar levels will rise after eating a certain type of food. There are two versions of the GI. One uses glucose scored as 100, while the other uses white bread; the foods are then tested against the results of the selected standard. |
Carol Simontacchi
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 Grains
Most people are aware of the United States Department of Agriculture food guide pyramid, which recommends six to eleven servings a day of grains in the form of bread, cereal, rice, and pasta. While grains— and especially whole grains—contain valuable nutrients, many of them have been found to have certain negative effects on the body.
First, it should be noted that for a good segment of the population, grains have proven to be fattening. This, alone, is a problem for many well-known reasons. However, what most people do not know is that obesity has been linked to inflammation. |
Mike Adams
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| Let's take a look at that food guide pyramid. This pyramid, which was created primarily as a response to political influence by various food groups (read "Food Politics" by Marion Nestle to learn more), is little more than a promotional brochure for the farmers of America. It promotes the dairy industry, the grain farmers, meat producers and various food producers. But the number one recommendation by the USDA is of course the grains. And most people think that a slice of white bread is a healthy grain because it is recommended by the USDA. |
Michael T. Murray
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| One of the main criticisms of the food guide pyramid is that it does not stress strongly enough the importance of quality food choices. For example, the bottom of the pyramid represents the foods that the USDA thinks should make up the bulk of your diet: the Bread, Cereal, Rice, and Pasta Group. At six to eleven servings a day from this group, you are supposedly on your way to a healthier life. What the pyramid doesn't tell you, though, is that you are setting yourself up for insulin resistance, obesity, and adult-onset diabetes if you consistently make poor choices in this important category. |
Mike Adams
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 Not surprisingly, the food guide pyramid has more to do with pleasing the influential food lobbyists than providing useful nutritional advice to the U.S. public.
Since there is such a gap in this knowledge, I decided to create my own chart called The Honest Food Guide. It's a food guide designed to protect your health, not big business profits, and it's available free of charge as a download right now at www.HonestFoodGuide.org. |
T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. and Thomas M. Campbell II
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 Simultaneously, he was chair of the Dietary Guidelines Committee that establishes the food guide pyramid and sets national nutrition policy affecting the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs, the Food Stamp Program and the Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Feeding Program (WIC).1,10 As chair of this latter committee, his personal financial associations with the food industry were not publicly revealed as required by federal law. |
Ruth Winter
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 FOOD GUIDE PYRAMID • The food guide pyramid is a graphic design used to communicate the recommended daily food choices contained in the 1995 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The information provided is developed and promoted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The food guide pyramid shows at its wide base what should form the foundation of a healthful diet—six to eleven servings—daily from the bread, cereal, rice, and pasta group. |
Michele Simon
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| Weekly Reader MyPyramid
Grocery Manufacturers Association's curriculum on the food guide pyramid. www.gmabrands.com/news/docs/NewsRelease.cfm?DocID=1569 Public-Private Partnerships
America on the Move
The Web site's claim that "[i]t's all about energy balance" tells all; the two main corporate sponsors arc PepsiCo and (meat packer) Cargill. www.americaonthcmovc.org
Champions for Healthy Kids
Grant program established by General Mills in partnership with the American Dietetic Association Foundation and the President's Challenge. www.generalmills.com/corporate/commitment/champions. |
Ruth Winter
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| Also commonly known as "food poisoning." food guide pyramid • The food guide pyramid is a graphic design used to communicate the recommended daily food choices contained in the 1995 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The information provided is developed and promoted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The food guide pyramid shows at its wide base what should form the foundation of a healthful diet—six to eleven servings—daily from the bread, cereal, rice, and pasta group. |
Mike Adams
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| And that's how this food guide pyramid should be looked upon by intelligent consumers: pure marketing propaganda.
Poor soils lead to nutritionally depleted foods
There are many other reasons why three balanced meals a day won't provide you with optimum nutrition. One of those reasons is that foods are grown in nutritionally depleted soils. As a result, many foods don't provide the nutrition they used to provide according to textbook nutritional profiles. |
Kelly Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen
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 Only 2 percent of youth meet all the recommendations of the food guide pyramid; 16 percent do not meet any. þFewer than 15 percent to 20 percent of schoolchildren get adequate servings of fruits and vegetables. þOnly 16 percent of children meet the guidelines for saturated fat. þTeenagers drink twice as much carbonated soda as milk; only 19 percent of girls get the recommended amount of calcium. þTwelve percent of students report skipping breakfast, and only 11 percent have breakfasts with the recommended nutrients. |
| While the food guide pyramid explains serving sizes, only 1 percent of those who responded to the American Institute for Cancer Research's 2000 survey could correctly identify serving sizes for a range of foods.27
Understanding serving sizes is hard when portions are so large. The study by Young and Nestle mentioned above found that with the exception of one item (sliced white bread), all foods they studied were served in amounts exceeding U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standard portions (e.g. |
Robert Hass, M.S.
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 The Phytofood Guide Pyramid
A few years ago, experts at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), unhappy with the four-food-group arrangement and buckling under pressure from health authorities, devised a healthier and more scientific eating scheme called the USDA's Eating Right food guide pyramid. The USDA plan clearly indicated that meat and dairy products should play less of a role in the American diet than had been recommended previously. |
Kelly Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen
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| What crops get subsidized, which commodities get shipped to schools through the National School Lunch Program, what foods get emphasized in the food guide pyramid, and whether soft drinks are permitted in schools are a few places where political influence can affect the national nutrition environment. There are many, many cases where business interests conflict with public health. People deserve to know how and when this occurs and the impact it has on them and their children. |
| What is listed as a serving of pasta on a box might be twice the serving used in the food guide pyramid. Having universal definitions of serving sizes is the first step.
Americans, beginning with children, must be better informed about serving sizes. As nutrition is taught in schools, serving size amounts should be discussed in any instruction on healthy eating. In Chapter 6, we recommended that the school cafeteria be a learning laboratory. Food models that match up with the day's menu could begin educating children about servings. |
Laurie Deutsch Mozian, M.S., R.D.
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 Climbing the Food Pyramid: Basic Diet Guidelines
The Basic Healthy Diet is based upon the food guide pyramid (see Figure 6.1 below), which was created by the United States Department of Agriculture to give Americans guidelines for the foods they should be eating for optimum health. Following is a list of the food groups that make up the eating plan. For each group, foods that are recommended are specified, as are the foods to avoid. Understand that changing your diet is a process. You and your family will be entering an adjustment period. |
| Both are good sources of protein and are named as alternate choices to meat and poultry in the U.S. food guide pyramid. Additionally, both nuts and seeds contain substantial amounts of fat.
The types of fat that predominate in most nuts and seeds are the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, so they are not thought to contribute to heart disease; in fact, they may help prevent it. Two very large clinical trials seem to support this finding. |
| Protein-Rich Foods
The food guide pyramid tells us to include two to three servings daily of two to three ounces of protein-rich foods, which include meat, poultry, fish, beans, tofu, eggs, nuts, and nut butters. A standard serving size of chicken, fish, and meat is two to three ounces. Use the palm of your hand as a guide. Your serving should be about that large and no thicker than a deck of cards. A medium egg would also confer a serving of protein. A serving size of cooked beans is one-half cup. |
The Editors of Prevention Magazine Health Books
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 Department of Agriculture's food guide pyramid, getting two to three servings of fruits and three to four servings of vegetables a day—consume only 190 micrograms of folate a day. (Public health officials are still debating the merits of fortifying foods with folic acid to increase intake, but the British aren't. They have already added it to cereals and other items. |
Robert Hass, M.S.
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| Whole grains and cereals take a backseat to vegetables in the Phytonutrient food guide pyramid. Why? Because complex carbohydrate foods such as bread, breakfast cereal, and pasta contain lower levels of cancer-fighting phytonutrients and are calorically denser than phytonu-trient-rich vegetables and legumes. Unless you are a cancer victim fighting cachexia (loss of appetite and muscle wasting), beating back a fierce enemy such as cancer requires the most nutrition for the least calories. A low-calorie, phytonutrient-dense diet is the fast track to a long and healthy life (Table 3.2).
-? |
Prevention Magazine
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 Department of Agriculture (USDA) food guide pyramid, which recommends that everyone eat approximately 15 to 26 servings of fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, and proteins every day. In this country, the pyramid is considered the optimal eating plan.
However, the USDA's isn't the only pyramid going. There's also a Mediterranean Pyramid, based on the traditional diet of southern Europe. Unlike our pyramid, which includes meats as a way of getting enough proteins every day, the Mediterranean Pyramid depends instead on legumes, fish, and nuts to supply the necessary proteins. |
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