A Food Pyramid?
How Long Can it Last!

For some reason, people who study nutrition and tell us how to eat really like food pyramids. I suppose it makes sense, after all, pyramids are stable. They sit on their solid base and are virtually impossible to tip over.

Let's see, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt has been around for 4,600 years or so. Sounds pretty solid and it should be; it was built over a 20 year period with huge stone blocks weighing about two and a half tons each, all fitted together with perfect precision.

If only we could say the same thing about the food pyramid built by our own U.S. Department of Agriculture. Their first effort at food pyramid building was in 1992 and stood the test of time all the way to 2005 when it was replaced with a different one.

The new one called "My Pyramid" seems to be nothing more than the old pyramid tipped over on its side. Looks like the USDA food pyramid wasn't very stable, it was easily tipped over.

Looking back, the people in the USDA who worry about our food had good intentions. In 1992 the obesity trend in the U.S. was starting to pick up steam with between 10 and 14 percent of the population being overweight or obese.

Recall that obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more. The USDA was concerned and felt moved to issue dietary guidelines on healthy eating.

It is also significant to note that by 1992, the low fat diet craze was well entrenched in the U.S.

Medical schools were teaching that eating fat causes fat and food companies were rolling out no-fat and low-fat foods as fast as they could. This was the situation at the time that the first food pyramid was inaugurated.

The problem was that it was based on fuzzy thinking and flawed science. Although the glycemic index had been introduced eleven years earlier in Canada, it would be another five years before it came to the U.S.

The result was that the USDA food pyramid introduced in 1992 was guaranteed to make people fatter.

The 1992 food pyramid was originally known as the "food guide Pyramid" and was created without any input from the Department of Health and Human Services. As shown in the graphic above, the bottom layer of the food pyramid was all grain based.

It sent the message that the foundation of our diet should be bread, cereal, pasta, crackers, rice and any other foods made from milled grain. The USDA was highly criticized as putting forth dietary guidelines intended to benefit grain producers at the expense of the health of our citizens.

The nutrition from this type of food is mainly starch, a carbohydrate that is certain to cause a rise in blood sugar with a resulting insulin spike. In addition, most of the healthy fiber is removed from these grains products during the milling process.

The problem is that with little fiber present, digestion occurs very quickly resulting in an even more rapid increase in blood sugar. This scenario will cause stress on the pancreas and leads to the onset of diabetes.

It is more than coincidence that Since 1992 there has been an epidemic increase in type 2 diabetes. This is also called "insulin resistant diabetes" as opposed to type 1 diabetes in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin.

The real tragedy is that more and more children are now falling victim to diabetes and the linkage to diet and obesity is undeniable.

Vegetables and fruit show up in the second tier of the food pyramid indicating that we can get by on lesser proportions of these healthy foods than the grains. Dairy and meat is in the third tier with fats and sweets at the very top.

This is in keeping with the low-fat mentality of the times but it's a mystery why the pyramid builders thought that sweets needed to be included in dietary guidelines. The candy industry must have had good lobbyists too.

In all fairness, it must be understood that dietary guidelines aren't something that just sprung up overnight at the USDA. The study of food and nutrition is an ongoing process at the department and has been so since the 1970s when they issued the "national nutritional recommendations". These recommendations urged moderation in diet to combat chronic disease conditions.

From there the studies evolved to that of a "total diet" approach in the 1980s. This took the form of a food wheel and then later became a tabular listing intended to be "a pattern for daily food choices". It was decided that a graphic presentation was superior to a tabular list, thus the 1992 food pyramid guide was born.

By the early 2000s, with rising rates of obesity and diabetes, a reassessment and revision of food intake patterns was needed. The objective was to establish new nutritional goals in line with current nutritional standards for adequacy and moderation.

To their credit, this time the input for the food pyramid came from established experts in the field and authoritative panels such as the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) and the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine. The food industry lobbyists were finally shown the door.

The output of this effort was the current "MyPyramid" which is designed to recognize that when it comes to diet, one size does not fit all. It incorporates interactive on-line tools to craft a proper diet and track its progress.

The Department followed a five step methodology that:

The USDAs website carries a graphic called "The Anatomy of MyPyramid" wherein the following messages are implied:

There are still several criticisms of the MyPyramid approach foremost is that it is not that big a change from the 1992 version of the food pyramid. It still is overweight in grains but to its credit, fruit and vegetables combined do outweigh the orange grain section.

There are more and more nutritionists coming out against milk and dairy, not so much for the dairy products themselves, but for the antibiotics and hormones that are given to the cows and which end up in the end product. Pure organic milk is great except that it can be difficult to find and is expensive.

Also the "MyPyramid Food Guidance System" and the on-line tools take a fair amount of study to understand how it is supposed to be used and few people are willing to devote the time much less have the discipline to follow the system.

What both of these USDA pyramids have in common is that they are both LOW FAT PYRAMIDS! If you care to, navigate to Fad Diets to see what "low-fat" eating has done to our country.

On the bright side, in the last couple of years, the obesity trend in the U.S. has been leveling out. Is there a correlation between the new USDA food pyramid and the leveling of the trend? Only time will tell but I don't think so.

With the advent of the glycemic index in Canada in 1981 and its entry to the U.S. in 1997, it is possible that we are starting to see a positive effect on U.S. weight trends. Unfortunately, new discoveries dietary science and their adoption into the mainstream seem to move about as fast as a herd of turtles.

While the idea of Low Glycemic eating came to the Harvard Medical School in 1997, it took eight more years for it to get the attention of mainstream media. In March 2005, the low glycemic concept hit the front page of USA Today.

Even a cursory search of the web will turn up several versions of the food pyramid based on low glycemic eating or healthy eating as some call it.

The University of Michigan Integrative Medicine has a very busy food pyramid with ten levels; beginning with water at the base and ending with "accompaniments" and personal space at the top. Fruit and vegetables make up the second tier after water.

Several websites devoted to glyconutrients display a four-tier "low glycemic" food yramid with fruit and vegetables at the base, dairy and meat at the second tier and whole grains at the top.

Dr. Weil has an "Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid" that is very reflective of low glycemic eating. It also shows fruit and vegetables at the base but is unique in that it lists dietary supplements at the second tier under the third tier of whole grains, pasta (al dente) and legumes. In total it has an even dozen layers.

Then we have the Harvard School of Public Health that has a "Healthy Eating" Food Pyramid with exercise and weight control at the base of the pyramid and fruits, vegetables and oils shown on the second tier. It has five levels but shows wine and a multivitamin supplement off to the side, outside the pyramid.

I suspect we can credit our copyright laws for the proliferation of so many different versions of the low glycemic food pyramid. For that very reason, I am not going to copy any of them into this website.

Basically they are all the same but each has to have at least one thing a little different from all the others so as not to be accused of plagiarism.

Low Glycemic eating is gaining disciples by leaps and bounds and every school that has a health and nutrition department seems driven to construct their own food pyramid. I doubt we will see the end of creative low glycemic pyramids anytime soon.

The Low Glycemic food pyramid I am most familiar with is from Dr. Steve Nugent who created The Genetic Key Diet and published a book of the same name. Dr. Nugent takes the science of low glycemic eating to the next level by combining it with one of five metabolic body types, which he labels the "genetic key".

He then tailors a low glycemic diet program keyed to each genetic type. It made such sense to me that I enrolled in his certification course and became a "Genetic Key Certified Coach (GKCC).

Since I am a GKCC I will take the liberty of providing a "representative" graphic of Dr. Nugent's pyramid below and give him full credit.

His book, "The Genetic Key Diet, the Key to Unlock a Lean Body & a Long Healthy Life" is published by The Althia Corporation, Copyright 2006. The book is only available to GKCCs and is becoming very hard to find in the used book market. Amazon recently had one copy for $125 (I bought my copy new for $9.95). If you can find a used one at a reasonable price, grab it.

Since I am a GKCC, I'll make you an offer to determine which genetic key type you are; no charge, no obligation. Click on Consultation and it will take you to a form to request a consultation on the Genetic Key diet. Fill out the form and I will e-mail you a short 40 question survey. Complete the survey and return it to me and I will get back to you with your genetic key type and its implications.

In summary, the genetic key diet is the one that works and whatever food pyramid you decide to follow, just make sure it has fruit and vegetables at the base and has whole grain products at the top.

If you are struggling with weight problems and have tried everything, then this is the one for you. For more in depth information on what the GLYCEMIC INDEX is all about, click here for a page dedicated to the subject.

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