Senator can't stomach U.S. food pyramid guidelines
By Eric Morath
Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
10/05/2003
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WASHINGTON - Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., says he was looking over a box of crackers when he became convinced that the government is endorsing unhealthy foods.
The box he held displayed the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid and touted the crackers as part of the recommended six to 11 daily servings of grain. But Fitzgerald said the label showed that five crackers alone contained more carbohydrates than two Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
Fitzgerald blamed the department's close relationship with food producers.
"The pyramid is giving a government stamp of approval to these products," he said in an interview last week. "I think the guidelines are fundamentally flawed and misleading."
To improve the nation's dietary guidelines, Fitzgerald said, the department should no longer have a role in establishing them. He plans to propose legislation that would give that duty to the Department of Heath and Human Services instead. The agencies now share the job.
Creating a diet for America conflicts with the USDA's mission to promote agriculture, Fitzgerald said. He said the pyramid, first introduced in 1992, reflects the department's close ties with grain and sugar producers. He believes the other department is not subject to the same internal conflict and strong lobbyists.
"I see a lot of cozy relationships every day in Washington that probably work out to the detriment of taxpayers," Fitzgerald said. "But in this case, the coziness is more troublesome. We are talking about their health and their lives."
Agriculture officials say the department's role in creating dietary guidelines is essential because it has knowledge of the entire food chain, from farms to production, and a more than 100-year history of providing the information.
The department's close relationship with farmers is an asset in discussions about guidelines with the Department of Health and Human Services, said spokesman John Webster.
The two departments' Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee will release the next set of instructions in 2005. The Department of Agriculture also has convened groups to reconsider the food pyramid and advise the committee.
But Webster said the current guidelines did not lead to obesity or other indicators of poor health.
"Those people that follow (the pyramid) can be assured of eating a healthy, well-balanced diet," Webster said. America's weight problem is more attributable, he said, to the fact that less than 2 percent of Americans follow the plan.
At a hearing Fitzgerald presided over Tuesday, invited experts expressed concerns with the food pyramid, specifically its premise that fats are bad and grains are good.
"Three decades of a national campaign to reduce fat intake has done nothing to combat the rise of obesity in this country," Dr. Stuart Trager from Atkins Nutritionals Inc. said in his testimony.
The Atkins Diet claims weight loss can be achieved through a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet. But the food pyramid recommends eating three to four times as many breads and pastas as meats and beans.
The pyramid also fails to distinguish between good and bad foods within a group, said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
"The dairy group mixes fat-free milk with high-fat cheese," he said. "The protein group mixes fatty meats with wholesome beans."
Jacobson recommended a pyramid that separates foods into "anytime," "in moderation" and "seldom" categories. He also said the government should create a healthy food symbol to highlight the best choices in groceries.
In August, Jacobson criticized some Dietary Guidelines committee members' ties to the food, drug and dietary supplement industries. "Those biases should have disqualified them from membership on such an important committee. Few people, after all, want to bite the hands that feed them," Jacobson said.
He didn't specifically place blame on the departments of Agriculture or Heath and Human Services.
While solutions at the hearing differed, all agreed that obesity and diabetes were on the rise because Americans are not eating healthy diets.
Fitzgerald said obesity took more than 300,000 lives a year and nearly 64 percent of adults were overweight.
A growing percentage of Missouri and Illinois residents are "obese," under the Centers for Disease Control standards - someone 5 feet 8 for example, weighing 200 pounds or more.
In 1991, 12 percent of Missourians were obese. That number rose to 22.5 percent in 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In the same time, Illinois jumped to 20.5 percent from 12.7 percent.
But mustering support for changing the pyramid may be difficult. Fitzgerald said some of the same groups that influence the Agriculture Department had the ears of lawmakers.
To increase his chances, Fitzgerald will try to steer the bill to the Senate Commerce Committee instead of the Agriculture Committee.
Even if his attempt fails, Fitzgerald said at the hearing, it's good to publicize shortcomings in the pyramid. The Department of Agriculture's current program, he said, "probably has more to do with diabetes and obesity than Krispy Kremes."
Reporter Eric Morath
Phone: 202-298-6880
"Senator can't stomach U.S. food pyramid guidelines"
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