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USDA
does public a disservice with new pyramid
May 4, 2005
You’ve
probably seen the replacement for the old Food Guide Pyramid.
Does the new rainbow-filled pyramid help you better understand
what you should eat to be healthy?
It doesn’t work for me – and I am doubtful it
will for most people, because the government intentionally
stripped the pyramid of all of its educational content.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture replaced its
familiar old icon with a two-tiered approach to dispensing
nutrition advice.
One part is a web site – www.mypyramid.gov
– with information for individualizing nutrition recommendations.
The web site does a good job – for people willing to
take the time to use it.
However, the other part of USDA’s approach – the
only element most people are likely to see – is nothing
more than a logo. Dig into the USDA’s documentation
and you learn that the agency intends the new pyramid to function
strictly as a “motivational symbol.”
In effect, the USDA has abandoned a simple, accessible descriptive
graphic of what the agency considers a healthy diet and replaced
it with a picture that conveys as much nutrition information
as the Nike swoosh.
Why?
USDA contends that one symbol can’t convey enough information
to help people understand what to eat. But that’s not
true.
Researchers at the Harvard University School of Public Health
have managed to do it with their alternative “Healthy
Eating Pyramid” which does a masterful job of summarizing
good dietary advice in a single symbol. You can view it online
at www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramids.html.
(And you don’t need a color printer to print it out.)
However, a large segment of the country will have to do without
a simple graphic description of nutrition advice.
Beth Jimenez is a nutrition educator with the Smart Choices
Nutrition Education Program in Caroline County, Virginia,
a service provided to low-income residents by Virginia Cooperative
Extension. She goes to the homes of her predominately African
American and elderly clients, many of whom have diabetes or
are overweight.
I called Jimenez because she was one of the people who wrote
to USDA during the public comment period preceding development
of the new “food guidance system,” saying in her
letter: “Having a colorful and easy to read graphic
to use as a teaching tool is paramount.”
I asked Jimenez for her reaction to the new symbol, and she
said she was surprised it didn’t include any details.
She said that while the new system contained some elements
she liked, she worried about folks’ ability to access
the web-based information.
“I’m concerned whether low-income clients will
be able to access it and understand it,” she said.
“I work with a lot of seniors,” Jimenez said.
“Many have to decide between paying for food and paying
for medications. They aren’t thinking about paying for
Internet access.”
Did USDA officials consider how people might be affected by
the nutrition education gap they were creating?
Under the agency’s plan for development of the new food
guidance system, USDA committed itself to conducting consumer
testing of the system before rolling it out to the public.
“As part of the design and development process, all
potential images, messages, and materials will be tested with
consumers to determine how well they communicate intended
messages, how actionable they are, and how appealing they
are to consumers,” USDA said in the July 13, 2004 Federal
Register. “Results from the consumer research will be
used to revise and finalize the materials.”
I called USDA to ask for the results of the consumer testing.
But USDA spokesman John Webster told me the testing results
were unavailable.
“I don’t have any information at this point on
the testing,” he said. “Our staff is in the midst
of writing that.”
The USDA last month walked away from its responsibility to
provide easy-to-understand, scientifically sound nutrition
advice for the general public – and especially for people
who need help deciphering often confusing and conflicting
nutrition information.
USDA could create an accurate graphic that does a solid job
of showing people how to build a health-supporting diet. But
it won’t, because it would have to make clear that some
foods are better for health than others and that nearly all
of us should cut back on how much we eat.
As it stands, the new pyramid logo will become the food industry’s
newest marketing tool.
The Grocery Manufacturers of America had plans to use the
new pyramid on food packaging even before it was unveiled.
Soon you’ll see the pyramid on cereal boxes, milk cartons
and other food packages as each segment of the food industry
promotes its own slice of the multicolored triangle.
But our government should not be passing the responsibility
of disseminating nutrition advice to the food industry.
The nutrition researchers at Harvard put it this way in their
online Nutrition Source letter: “If the only goal of
the Food Guide Pyramid is to give us the best possible advice
for healthy eating, then it should be grounded in the evidence
and be independent of business.”
I sure wish I could give a glowing review of the new pyramid.
But this one is a letdown and a disservice to the public.
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