The Pyramid is Dead!

If you are up on food politics in this country you know that the food pyramid has been under attack by those whose financial futures are tied to their influence over what American's eat, whether it is good for them to do so or not.  For example, the first pyramid design was unpopular to some because those food groups at the top were not happy that it indicated to Americans to eat less meat, for example.  Then the pyramid was revised to have slivers, more or less, running from the base to the tip to indicate what percentage of daily foods should be eaten from the basic food groups and there were still those who did not care for that design either especially if your food group was the smallest sliver.  For more information on this subject read Marion Nestles Food Politics or follow her work on her website at: http://www.foodpolitics.com/

Anyhow, the food pyramid is no more, it has been replaced by a plate, which is what most Americans eat from anyway so it makes sense compared to the pyramid.  Regardless of what one thinks about the food items that were included or excluded from the food groups on the new plate concept I think it is a more common sense approach to educating Americans on what should appear on their plates or in their drinking glass at each meal.  You can check it out for yourself and draw your own conclusions at http://www.choosemyplate.gov/index.html

I especially like the link to Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 and Michelle Obama's efforts to end childhood obesity through Let's Move, which I reported on in an earlier blog post.  What I do not like is an aspect that is found on the food pyramids used by other countries which has exercise at the base or people running up the side -- how sad!

I guess when all is said and done it is still up to us in culinary and hospitality programs to educate ourselves and our students on serving more healthy foods based on dietary guidelines to the dining public without compromising profitability.  Afterall, when McDonalds's, the King of QSR, is revising its menu to add more healthy items it is time for academics to get ahead of the curve and do what we can to support our industry finds its way down the path of healthy eating.  Besides, it is truly sad when one realizes that there are hundreds and thousands of people in the country who have contracted diseases they would not have were it not for their inability to stop shoving garbage in their mouths and engage in regular physical activity.  if you stop to think about it, we could do our part to help reduce the cost of health care in this country by doing our best to help Americans make better food choices on a regular basis and indulge on occasion and myplate might help us in that regard.