Rehab time for familiar food pyramid

The USDA is assembling nutritional data in what it hopes will be a format that will help overweight Americans make healthier food choices.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Sept. 13, 2004.

Washington -- The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture is revamping its food guidance system in an effort to help combat America's obesity epidemic -- a move that could lead to the reconfiguration of the iconic food pyramid.

The need for effective tools is apparent.

"Unfortunately, we are the fattest people in the world," said Eric M. Bost, Agriculture Dept. undersecretary for Food Nutrition and Consumer Services, as an opening salvo for an Aug. 19 public hearing on the department's actions. "If we were just chubby and happy that would be one thing, but over 400,000 people die as a result of obesity-related illnesses."

Rates of diabetes and heart disease are skyrocketing, and much of the blame is attributed to Americans' increasing heft.

Whether blame can also be laid at the base of the food pyramid is another matter. While the symbol is well-known, perhaps because it is often used on food wrappings, scant attention is apparently paid to what is inside the pyramid and even less attention is given to the voluminous written material that is intended to explain it.

"I find [the pyramid] not particularly useful as a physician doing nutrition and obesity counseling on a daily basis," said Robert F. Kushner, MD, medical director of the Wellness Institute at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Although "it is a nice reminder that a healthy diet includes all the food groups, we rarely use that depiction in our program, and I'm not sure how many physicians actually do use it. I think for many members of the public it's old news," said Dr. Kushner, also editor of an AMA primer on counseling obese patients.