The New Food Pyramid
New dietary guidelines are being developed and an original informative group hopes to make an impact on the final recommendations. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll introduce you to them in one minute. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are being developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). According to an article in Drovers magazine by Walt Barnhart the original 1980 guidelines definitely didn't work as obesity is higher and Americans are no healthier. Those recommendations focused on individual nutrients believed to cause health problems. Adam Drewnowski, PhD. professor and director of the Center for Health and Nutrition at the University of Washington, says we have to quit living in a climate of fear and use a positive approach to focus on foods, not problem nutrients. Drewnowski relates people need to look at food as food. He believes removing a problem nutrient does not guarantee a healthy diet, but concentrating on nutrient-dense foods does. Dr. Drewnowski has expressed his ideas to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee in Washington D.C. and a group called the Nutrient Rich Foods Coalition has been formed to put even more emphasis on his views. This partnership coalition includes twelve commodity organizations, leading scientific researchers, and communication experts. Tomorrow I look forward to telling you more about this group and their important work. I'm Jeff Keane.
