In the world of nutrition research, five years is a lifetime. New
studies make headlines each day and consumer appetites are increasing
for simple, reliable guidance. “People are definitely interested in
nutrition and choosing better foods for their families and for
themselves. There’s a lot of awareness about it,’’ says Nancy L. Cohen,
head of the Department of Nutrition at University of Massachusetts
Amherst.
This month, the federal departments
of Agriculture and Health and Human Services will release the 2010
dietary guidelines, updated every five years since 1980. The guidelines
directly impact the eating habits of one in every four Americans whose
meals are subsidized by federal programs. The food pyramid, called
MyPyramid in recent years, is expected to receive a face lift as well.
The precise timing of the release of each is not known, according to
John Webster, a spokesman for the USDA.
But
whether a new blueprint on healthy eating will change habits that have
given us one of the highest obesity rates in the world is an urgent
question. Decisions about what to eat are generally made at the
supermarket, not while reading federal guidelines. “What we need to do
is put more effort into figuring out how to engage people who don’t use
nutrition as a major deciding point’’ when buying food, says Alice H.
Lichtenstein, a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science
and Policy at Tufts University. “We really need to learn more about
consumer behavior.’’ Experts like Lichtenstein wonder if more nutrition
information helps or confuses shoppers.
Some
in the field argue that the guidance needs to be much clearer, more
like the wildly popular “Eat This, Not That!,’’ a magazine column,
reworked into a book and an iPhone app, that made its mark telling
readers which fast food was nutritionally better than others.
Dr.
David L. Katz, director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center
and an associate professor at the university’s School of Medicine, is
an advocate for more specific guidance. For example, 45 to 65 percent of
daily calories should come from foods that contain carbohydrates. But
“lollipops and lentils are both carbs,’’ Katz says. And while the
current federal recommendations do stress eating carbohydrates from
whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, he adds, “We need to do a better
job of specifically defining highly recommended foods.’’
Dr.
Walter Willett thinks it will not happen in the upcoming guidelines.
The chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public
Health believes the new guidelines will be “consistent with [USDA’s]
mantra that there is no such thing as a good food or a bad food. I think
that ignores a huge mound of evidence that it does matter what you
eat.’’
The final guidelines,
he says, are influenced by more than just science. “I’m not sure the
USDA can ever really do that: Tell people to cut back on red meat, rice,
pasta, and potatoes,’’ says Willett. “They’re going to have huge
elements of the agricultural industry on their doorsteps.’’
The
Harvard School of Public Health publicizes its own “Healthy Eating
Pyramid,’’ which includes daily exercise and encourages eating whole
grains, fruits, and vegetables.
Some
educators think MyPyramid is a useful tool. Leigh Ann Edwards, national
program operations director for Cooking Matters, an organization that
offers classes to low-income families, says the pyramid helps categorize
foods and shows how they fit in a daily diet. “It gives us a way to
talk about food,’’ she says. A discussion of vitamins and nutrients gets
complex and confusing, she notes.
While
no one is talking about the final 2010 recommendations before their
release, a June advisory report, open for public comment, gives some
clues. Cohen of UMass Amherst expects the final guidelines to place even
greater emphasis on physical activity and continue to recommend that
people include more fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, foods with Omega-3
fatty acids, and a suggestion to eat three servings of low-calorie dairy
products a day (some argue that calcium supplements should be used in
place of the third serving).
Diligent
shoppers aren’t likely to gain much new perspective from a revamped
pyramid, Willett says. “It is helpful in offering a general gestalt
about healthy eating,’’ he says. “But we need something more detailed
that tells us how healthy this particular food is.’’
To get something endorsed by all might take as long as it did to build the great pyramids of Egypt.
M.E. Malone can be reached at m.e.malone@comcast.net.  |