good healthThe USDA's New Food Guide Pyramid vs. The Harvard's Pyramid Version
Note from blogmaster: I'm not so crazy about any of these pyramids. I agree with Ira that milk just isn't necessary for a healthy diet. There are better ways to get calcium and protein. I very seldom drink milk and when I do, it's organic and reduced fat. This article courtesy of Ira Marxe, please visit his website listed at end of article for some of the best health products online today.
The new government guidelines for healthy eating, a supposed improvement over the previously heavily flawed US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Guide Pyramid, is now called MyPyramid, www.mypyramid.gov.
During the last healthy guideline period, it should be noted, obesity and type 2 diabetes soared! Quite an achievement!
MyPyramid was released in January 2005 and is, as usual, heavily influenced by the various factions of the giant food industry and any similarity between it and healthy eating is purely coincidental. It’s all about money, not good health.
Intense lobbying came from such giant organizations as the National Dairy Council, United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, Soft Drink Association, American Meat Institute, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, and Wheat Foods Council.
The Harvard School of Public Health, recognizing the dangers to your health by the new MyPyramid, created their own food pyramid, free from any food-industry influence.
To quote from the Harvard report,
“Tragically, the information embodied in this pyramid (MyPyramid) didn't point the way to healthy eating. Why not? Its blueprint was based on shaky scientific evidence, and it barely changed over the years to reflect major advances in our understanding of the connection between diet and health.”
“And it continues to recommend foods that aren't essential to good health, and may even be detrimental in the quantities included in MyPyramid.”
Three cheers for Harvard!
According to the USDA, the guidelines "provide authoritative advice for people two years and older about how good dietary habits can promote health and reduce risk for major chronic diseases." What a joke!
Of far greater importance, the Dietary Guidelines in MyPyramid for Americans unfortunately set the standards for all federal nutrition programs, including the school lunch program, and help determine what food products Americans buy.
In other words, the guidelines influence how billions of dollars are spent each year. So even minor changes can hurt or help a food industry.
A good example of the ongoing battle with regard to healthy eating and our children is the legislation that was proposed by the Arizona Legislature to ban all junk food in Arizona schools.
After a long battle, the proponents of the ban finally had to compromise recognizing they would not win. They settled for a ban on junk food in primary schools and were forced to leave the status quo for our high schools.
It’s all about money and sad that it is the health of our children that they are sacrificing for that money. It is the same all around the country. Is it a wonder our kids are suffering from ADD, ADHD, type 2 diabetes and obesity?
The new MyPyramid guidelines suggest that it is ok to consume half of our grains as refined starch. The Harvard guidelines do not, (nor do we), pointing out that refined starch (white flour, white rice, etc.) increases your risk of diabetes and heart disease since refined starches behave like sugar causing a sudden rush of insulin to cope with the sudden influx of refined carbohydrates.
Harvard continues --- the body needs carbohydrates mainly for energy. The best sources of health related carbohydrates are whole grains such as oatmeal, whole-grain bread, and brown rice. They deliver the outer (bran) and inner (germ) layers along with energy-rich starch.
The body can't digest whole grains as quickly as highly processed carbohydrates. This keeps blood sugar and insulin levels from rising and falling too quickly.
Better control of blood sugar and insulin can keep hunger at bay and may prevent the development of type 2 diabetes and obesity.
There is no mention by the USDA of the detrimental health effects of ingesting high fructose corn syrup. (See my report “Latest On High Fructose Corn Syrup” July 30, 2004).
The corn syrup lobby is too strong. No where in the Harvard report could I find any warning about sugar and high fructose corn syrup consumption. In my opinion, that is a serious omission.
The new USDA guidelines now tell us to minimize the intake of trans-fats, not eliminate the intake altogether, which is what you should do. Harvard guidelines are the same, and neither one is recommending that trans-fats should be banned altogether from our food supply, which it should --- as has been done in other more health conscious countries.
USDA guidelines now acknowledge that your fat intake should be 20% to 35% of your daily caloric intake. The USDA lumps all sources of fats together. Harvard separates the fats between beef and fish or poultry, suggesting that you eat more fish and poultry then beef.
We concur and also recommend you choose lean beef. Buy grass fed organic beef, if you can, to keep from ingesting hormones, antibiotics, and chemicals mixed in with their feed.
According to Harvard, good sources of healthy unsaturated fats include olive, canola, soy, corn, sunflower, peanut, and other vegetable oils, as well as fatty fish such as salmon.
What they don’t tell you is that canola oil is made from genetically modified rape seed, is used as an industrial oil and insecticide, and that there is evidence of long term health problems.
They also don’t tell you that farmed Salmon are not a good source of omega 3 fatty acids that are so important for your good health --- only Wild Salmon is.
Farmed salmon is nutrient deficient, contains artificial color and chemical additives to keep them from getting sick. Farmed salmon are raised in pens, are closely packed together and swim in their own and every other salmon’s excrement. ps from blogmaster: Absolutely the most healthy salmon on earth is Vital Choice
We recommend you DO NOT use refined vegetable oils, such as recommended by MyPyramid and Harvard, as these oils are refined to death and are totally deficient in nutrients.
Eggs, once banned as a cause of high cholesterol, are now included in the Harvard Food Pyramid. Eggs are a great source of protein plus an abundance of other nutrients. We have been recommending eggs as an excellent food source for a long time. It is probably the best single whole food you can eat. Sadly, some people are allergic to eggs. ps from blogmaster: If you have never tried brown, free range eggs you won't believe how much better they taste than the white ones. Brown, free range organic eggs are not as hard to find as they once were either. You can even get them at Walmart.
High on the USDA and Harvard food lists is eating vegetables in abundance and including fruit in your daily diet and we concur. However, they don’t tell you how to eat your vegetables and fruit.
You should eat most vegetables and fruit raw. Vegetables you wish to cook are best steamed to where they are still crisp to preserve the vitamins, enzymes, flavanoids and phyto-chemicals they contain that are so vital to your good health. Over cooking vegetables depletes them of their nutrients. Fresh fruits and vegetables are much more nutrient rich than frozen. Buy fresh and organic whenever you can.
Nuts and legumes (dries peas, beans, lentils), recommended by the Harvard Pyramid, are excellent sources of protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals and should be included in your daily diet.
At home we always mix raw pumpkin or sun-flower seeds in with our raw salads. We also usually eat a hand full of dry roasted almonds or mixed organic nuts with organic raisins every day.
If you like your alcohol, Harvard recommends one to two alcoholic drinks a day for men and only one for women. Sorry ladies, but that is the way they see it and we agree. Men metabolize alcohol better then women do. I have to admit though, that when my father was told he had to limit his drinking to one drink a day, he went from a 2oz. shot glass to an 8oz water glass.
The USDA is still recommending three glasses of milk ever day (to the joy of the dairy industry) to get your calcium. From all the reading I have done, milk is one of the poorest resources to get calcium from.
Harvard does not agree with the USDA and Harvard does not recommend you drink 3 glasses of milk per day and speaks about the millions of people who cannot tolerate dairy products, cannot digest milk or other dairy products, and get no nutritional value from milk or milk products, but do get intestinal gas and stomach upset.
If you think you must drink milk, drink only organic, NON-HOMOGENIZED milk. Ask your health food store to get it for you.
Harvard recommends eating lots of dark leafy vegetables, dried beans and taking nutritional supplements. To absorb calcium, Harvard recommends you get plenty of sunshine vitamin D, do muscle building exercise and take supplements. We recommend walking as the best kind of exercise for your body.
Big on Harvard’s list is a multi-vitamin to overcome dietary deficiency problems and to supplement your food. Harvard’s multi-vitamin recommendation is to buy a generic multi-vitamin.
My recommendation, obviously, is that you buy the G.H.S. PLUS™ because all vitamins are not created equal.
All too many vitamins are filled with useless and unnecessary compounds for bulk. In addition, generic vitamins will not cleanse the plaque out of your arteries nor prevent new plaque buildup.
Only vitamins with the special formula that makes up the GHS Plus™ will do so and guarantee to give most everyone all the vitamin and mineral nutrition they need.
And speaking of healthy eating, I cannot emphasize strongly enough, do not eat in fast food restaurants. Their food is probably the leading cause of obesity, type 2 diabetes, ADD, and ADHD in our children as well as type 2 diabetes and obesity in adults.
Well there it is --- a blue print for healthy eating that you won’t get from our USDA, just as you won’t get natural cures from our FDA. There’s no money in it.
To Your Good Health and Longevity!
Ira Marxe,
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