Veggies, Fruit Of The Vine Ok In Food Guide Latest Federal ‘Food Pyramid’ Little Changed From 1990

Eating a vegetarian diet is a healthy option; gaining weight as you age is not. Daily exercise should accompany a healthy diet, and drinking alcohol is OK for most people if done in moderation.

These are the major new points in federal dietary guidelines released Tuesday. Otherwise the basic message remains unchanged from 1990: Eat lots of fruits, vegetables and grain products, less sugar, salt and sodium and very little fat, saturated fat and cholesterol.

The guidelines, published every five years since 1980 by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services, are based on the recommendations of an 11-person panel of outside experts. They provide the basis for the food guide pyramid, the federal government’s outline of a healthy diet, and for school lunch programs. As such, they tend to be broad:

Eat a variety of foods.

Balance the foods you eat with at least 30 minutes of daily physical activity.

Maintain a healthy weight throughout life, without gaining as you age.

Choose a diet with plenty of grain products, vegetables and fruits.

Choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol, and moderate in sugars, salt and sodium. As in 1990, the guidelines recommend that fat provides no more than 30 percent of total calories, with no more than 10 percent coming from saturated fat.

If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation.

One of the major changes from 1990 is the statement that “vegetarian diets are consistent with the dietary guidelines and can meet recommended dietary allowances for nutrients.” But it cautioned that those vegetarians who eat no dairy products need to supplement their diets with Vitamin B12, and that children especially need to get adequate vitamin D and calcium.

But the nation’s leading nutritional guerrilla thinks the feds are wimping out by hawking moderation instead of good old-fashioned discipline.

“‘Balance, variety and moderation’ are the watchwords of laissez-faire, or do-nothing behavior,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a private food watchdog group in Washington. “Ideally, federal guidelines should tell people what’s the best possible diet and urge them to move in that direction. These don’t.” The center has gained national attention recently for dramatically unmasking nutritional culprits such as theater popcorn, Mexican food and McDonald’s hamburgers.

The 1990 guidelines recommended against drinking alcohol. The new guidelines, while falling far short of endorsing its use, say that “alcoholic beverages have been used to enhance the enjoyment of meals by many societies throughout human history.” In moderation - no more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men - drinking is associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease in some people, the guidelines say. But people should drink only with meals and when “consumption does not put you or others at risk.”

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