New Look, Same Over Simplification: USDA Unveils Redesigned Food Pyramid
The food pyramid guideline was first introduced in 1992 by the USDA. In 1994 a new division called the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, or CNPP, was formed and tasked with attempting to promote public awareness about personal health and nutrition within the United States. Many of this new division’s duties are reactions to the recent studies that have reported an alarming rate of obesity in the nation’s youth. The new look of the food pyramid is a direct result of the CNPP’s activities.
Unfortunately appropriate personal nutrition is as unique as the character of any given person and the CNPP has failed to address this issue. It is rather misleading and borderline negligent for any nutritional expert to suggest that a proper diet fit into a pre-fabricated category. The CNPP has attempted to circumvent this notion by asterisking this information in the fine print at the bottom of their webpage. Furthermore, there are absolutely no distinctions made between the health values of consuming organic fruit versus non organic produce. It is seldom readily acknowledged and advertised that the poisons used in protecting and yielding conventional foods are actually absorbed and become a part of those foods. organic food should be untainted.by its nature. Acquiring and eating organic food is actually far healthier to the general constitution of the body than eating conventionally created foods. The results are fewer major health problems as aging progresses such as unexpected cancers. The resulting effect of their campaign efforts to educate Americans is misleading and potentially more harmful than helpful.
The USDA has failed to recognize and promote the more apt and applicable notion of nutrition as preventative medicine. Their campaign to educate fails to grasp that it is not only the amount of food but also, and possibly more importantly, the quality of the foods that we eat that contribute to a nutritionally balanced personal diet. There is no mention or discernment anywhere in the literature of the new food guidelines between selecting organic or non-genetically modified food choices contrasted with conventionally marketed foods. The failure to distinguish between these very real food options is an oversight that does a great disservice rather than to assist.
The USDA may find itself in a bind due to the fact that the American government in some instances prioritizes big business needs over its citizen’s welfare. A nutritionally rich and healthy diet is most directly linked to nutritionally diversified organic food consumption whether it is shopping at the markets, or dining in restaurants. An appropriately informed customer base should opt to purchase natural and organic foods as the healthier option over tainted conventional food choices. The USDA has failed the American citizens they are tasked to inform by oversimplifying their information and failing to make distinctions between natural and organic food and conventional foods.
Natural and organic foods provide a much healthier option to consumers with less negative environmental impact yet are often time much more difficult to obtain. Big business has a lot to say about how and what are provided in the marketplace as the pressure to keep expense down pervades the industry. Until the USDA begins to discern for its citizens between organic food and more polluted options they are failing to accomplish their stated objectives and their efforts remain ineffective at best, if not detrimental.
