USDA Food Pyramid Off Base?

The original USDA food pyramid has been discredited for years. Established in 1992 to replace even more dated recommendations, it immediately came under fire from dieticians as being far too vague and pandering to U.S. agribusiness.

1992 Food Pyramid

In the 1992 scheme, there were far too many carbohydrates allowed. Moreover, complex carbs were not differentiated from the high GI simple carbs found in things like processed white flour. Note the pasta, French bread and crackers.

They also recommended whole milk as opposed to skim milk which can lead to huge numbers of excess calories in the form of fat.

At least they got the fats, oils and sugars right and it was an improvement over previous recommendations that included way too much red meat.

Unfortunately, the pyramid above is still found on many packaged products found on supermarket shelves.

The latest incarnation is more in sync with the times, but still lags behind conventional wisdom.

The new guidelines, adopted in 2005, use a completely changed pyramid:

2005 Food Pyramid

Note the person doing some exercise on the side – nice touch. Unfortunately, the critics teed off on the new recommendations faster than a bunch of golf-happy Japanese.

"This is a complete pandering to the food industry and does not help consumers who are enormously confused about what to eat," said Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University.”

Food proportions are shown by the different widths of the bands:

They also have a web site that allows you to determine your BMR and will even make dietary recommendations. Unfortunately, like most BMR calculators, it fails to take into consideration muscle mass so shows muscular men as being overweight.

The biggest difference - reflecting the huge obesity problem in the U.S. - is the emphasis on exercise. They recommend at least 30 minutes per day and 60 to 90 minutes to lose weight. These are actually pretty good recommendations.

They’ve also separated whole grains from processed grains and show a preference for complex carbs over simple carbs – they even recommend eating much less of these items – about half – since the 1992 recommendations.

They even talk about vegetarian diets, which types of meats to eat and how best to prepare them – steamed, grilled or baked.

In fact, the recommendations they make are not bad. You could do worse than following their program despite what critics say.

Its biggest short coming has to do with the different needs of individuals – some people, for example, need fewer overall carbs, more protein and others need less dairy.

They also don’t take into consideration those who are trying to gain muscle mass or who exercise at high intensity.

Check out their recommendations here:

www.mypyramid.gov

You will probably find your fat burner program to be better than the one they recommend, but at least you can compare and maybe get some ideas that would make good additions to your own system for burning fat.

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