Quote:
Originally Posted by VickiR
Gee, do you think maybe the drug companies are invested in maintaining the old food pyramid???? Maybe wheat and corn producers, such as Kellogg et al, too?
Or am I just cynical?
|
Well certainly not cynical as far as agriculture and food producers are concerned considering their influence in constructing the original pyramid. (see this bit from Harvard magazine's "The Way We Eat Now";
"U.S. government agencies' attempts to deal with obesity during the last three decades—encouraging people to eat less fat and more carbohydrates, for example—actually may have exacerbated the problem. Take the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Guide Pyramid, first promulgated in 1992. The pyramid's diagram of dietary recommendations is a familiar sight on cereal boxes—hardly a coincidence, since the guidelines suggest six to 11 servings daily from the "bread, cereal, rice, and pasta" group. The USDA recommends eating more of these starches than any other category of food. Unfortunately, such starches are nearly all high-glycemic carbohydrates, which drive obesity, hyperinsulinemia, and Type II diabetes. "At best, the USDA pyramid offers wishy-washy, scientifically unfounded advice on an absolutely vital topic—what to eat," writes Willett in Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy. "At worst, the misinformation contributes to overweight, poor health, and unnecessary early deaths."
Note that the pyramid comes from the Department of Agriculture, not from an agency charged with promoting health, like the National Institutes of Health or the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The USDA essentially promotes and regulates commerce, and its pyramid (currently under revision; expect a new version in 2005) was the focus of intensive lobbying and political struggle by agribusinesses in the meat, sugar, dairy, and cereal industries, among others."
http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/050465.html
It would be interesting to see how drug companies could justify even being at the negotiating table when the new pyramid is debated, but that is not to say that their money and influence could not be used in other ways.
Cheers,
Malcolm