What are nutrition guidelines?

Introduction

In April 2005, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)
updated its 1992 food pyramid to a diagram called MyPyramid; this was done several
months after the US Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) issued the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Obesity
rates, particularly in children, had increased government concerns about providing
more effective nutritional guidance. The HHS estimated that 65 percent of adults
in the United States were overweight; more than 30 percent were obese. Many
diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancers, are associated with excess
body weight.

MyPyramid consisted of six vertical colored sections that represented food groups:
grains (orange), vegetables (green), fruit (red), oils and fats (yellow), dairy
(blue), and meats and beans (purple). A drawing of a human figure climbing steps
on the pyramid’s left side symbolized physical activity. The width of each area
indicated proportions of those foods that should be eaten daily to attain an
adequate intake of vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients. Pyramid variations offered nutritional
suggestions for people with diverse dietary needs, including pregnant or lactating
women, recognizing that individuals’ metabolisms differ according to the physical
demands on their bodies.

Individuals could provide details about their age, gender, height, and exercise
habits on MyPyramid's website in order to generate a nutritional profile of their
daily calorie expenditure and the recommended measurements that they should eat
from each food category to create a diet of varied foods rich in nutrients.
Recommendations incorporated food group options such as whole or refined grain and
vegetable types including dark green and starchy plants. The website presented
menus based on these suggestions. The MyPyramid Tracker enabled users to monitor
their eating and exercising behaviors.

In September 2005, the USDA introduced its MyPyramid for Kids. Educational activities stressed daily exercise and consumption of whole grains, low-fat dairy foods, vegetables, and fruit. The USDA introduced a Spanish-language pyramid in December 2005.

Six years later, in June 2011, a new diagram representing updated US nutrition
guidelines was introduced: MyPlate. Championed by First Lady
Michelle
Obama, the plate image replaced the pyramid with a simpler,
easy-to-understand reminder of what foods, and what portion sizes of these foods,
should be on one's plate. The circular image shows a "plate" divided into four
food groups. Vegetables (green) and fruits (red) take up half of the plate, with
vegetables overtaking more than half of that area. On the right side of the plate
are whole grains (orange) and protein (purple), with whole grains taking up more
than half of that side. A smaller circle sits to the top right of the plate,
representing dairy (blue).

While the plate itself is simple, the campaign behind it is much more comprehensive. The MyPlate website, ChooseMyPlate.gov, created by the USDA, provides numerous educational materials for a healthy, active lifestyle. The website's materials include variations on the plate diagram for children, pregnant women, and older adults; healthy eating and exercise advice; ways to track one's calorie intake and physical activity; and more.

The healthy lifestyle initiative cost about $2 million to roll out in various
phases, from focusing on getting Americans to make half of their plate fruits and
vegetables, to focusing on helping them avoid oversized portions, to replacing
sugary drinks with water. Later phases have included the MyPlate Kids' Place
initiative and the MyPlate on Campus initiative, both released in 2013. The latter
recruits college students to encourage their campus to become active, healthy
eaters. The former is designed for children ages eight to twelve and provides
information for parents and educators, including recipes, games, and activity
sheets for children.

Acceptance and Criticism

Reaction to the 2005 food pyramid was mixed. Nine months after the pyramid was
publicized, its website had been accessed approximately 1.2 billion times and more
than 500,000 registered users had utilized MyPyramid Tracker. Groups endorsing
MyPyramid included the American Heart Association, American Dietetic Association,
and School Nutrition Association. Some nutritionists adapted MyPyramid to design
nutritional programs. Tufts University created a Modified MyPyramid for Older
Adults, emphasizing the best nutrients for geriatric consumers and supplemental
vitamin and calcium sources.

In April 2005, General Mills was the first food manufacturer to incorporate the food pyramid on its packaging. ConAgra Foods started simplifying MyPyramid information for consumers on labels in 2008. The Grocery Manufacturers of America sponsored MyPyramid information printed in the children’s periodical Weekly Reader. Many food producers increased manufacturing of whole grain products to match expanded demand due to the pyramid stressing benefits of those foods.

Some critics claimed that lobbyists representing various sectors of the food
industry influenced the USDA to promote their goods through the food pyramid. Many
critics stated that MyPyramid did not present consumers with the healthiest
options possible. Some physicians promoted alternatives to the guide. Heart
surgeon Robert D. Willix Jr., who asserted that food pyramids contribute to
obesity, urged people to instead follow his Cenegenics Medical Institute Food
Diamond, introduced in 2008, which stresses the consumption of water, vegetables,
and lean proteins.

Similar reactions occurred with the introduction of MyPlate. Many people were
happy to see MyPyramid scrapped, having found it vague and confusing, and
appreciated having a much simpler diagram to work with—the MyPlate diagram shows
what a healthy diet should look like without confusing consumers trying to figure
out what a portion size actually is. While some criticized the government for
interfering with what their children eat, others expressed appreciation for
MyPlate's initiative to improve school lunches. The ChooseMyPlate website,
particularly its SuperTracker and other tools for monitoring one's diet and
physical activity, became a popular resource.

Some in the medical field, though praising MyPlate as an improvement over
MyPyramid, found fault with the plate diagram, however. Once again, Willix
criticized the USDA's choice of diagram and worked to promote his Cenegenics Food
Diamond as a customizable tool for an individual's specific dietary needs,
including those with diabetes and heart disease. Willix also criticized the USDA's
inclusion of dairy in MyPlate, claiming that it can cause numerous problems and
that there are other sources that provide the nutrients found in dairy.

Some in the scientific community found fault with MyPlate not because of its
design but because of its simplification. USDA nutrition guidelines may help
Americans make better food decisions. However, before the government creates their
guidelines, a scientific panel makes recommendations based on the latest research,
and these recommendations are not necessarily all followed during the creation of
a reader-friendly chart. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, this
could mean that many of the panel's health recommendations end up ignored. Harvard
released its own modified version of the plate diagram, which features a higher
ratio of vegetables, balances protein and whole grains as equal, emphasizes water
over dairy (though MyPlate also emphasizes the importance of water outside of the
diagram itself), and adds healthy oils.

Additionally, nutrition guideline diagrams set the standard for all federal
nutritional programs, including public school lunches. This can be a good thing,
and yet Harvard has argued that if certain recommendations from the scientific
panel are ignored, the health of students could be impacted negatively. The
guidelines influence what foods Americans buy, at least for their children.
Therefore, changes to the guidelines, whether in the shape of a pyramid, a plate,
or another diagram altogether, can both help and hurt the food industry while
influencing the health of Americans.

Perspective and Prospects

The US government first offered Americans nutritional recommendations in the 1930s
because of food scarcities during the Great Depression and then during
World War
II. The government’s basic four food groups included meats,
milk, starch, and vegetables and fruit. High-fat diets and inactive lifestyles
contributed to an increasing number of Americans gaining extra weight and
developing cardiovascular and other health problems in the following decades. By
1980, the government developed federal dietary guidelines that nutrition
experts were expected to revise approximately every five years.

The USDA endeavored to create a visual image to assist consumers in choosing
nutritious foods. In 1992, the USDA introduced its first triangle-shaped design,
with horizontal sections indicating specific food groups and numbers of servings.
Foods with the greatest serving amounts, from the grain and cereal group, were
located at the base, and decreasing quantities of servings were placed toward the
peak, where oils, fats, and sugars were clustered. That pyramid did
not specify portion sizes of servings. Although 80 percent of consumers said they
knew that the food pyramid existed, fewer than 10 percent followed its
recommendations, mainly because they were unable to comprehend how to apply
them.

Food groups appropriated aspects of the USDA’s food pyramid. The Boston Oldways
Preservation and Exchange Trust created food pyramids for Mediterranean, Latin
American, and Asian diets. Other pyramids addressed deficiencies that health
professionals perceived in the USDA’s pyramid. The Mayo Clinic designed a pyramid
that stressed the importance of exercise and more fruit and vegetable consumption
than was suggested by the USDA pyramid.

On an international scale, the World Health Organization (WHO) in
collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization released nutritional
guidelines in the form of a table in 2002. The table laid out dietary factors
ranging from different types of fats to different types of carbohydrates, among
other nutrients, with daily intake recommendations labeled in percentages or
grams. A modification of the table in the form of a pyramid was also created to
emphasize certain dietary factors, such as unrefined carbohydrates and protein,
that a person should restrict in order to prevent chronic diseases and obesity and
to promote dental health.

Advances in nutrition research by the early twenty-first century necessitated
revising USDA food information. By 2004, the USDA sought to improve the 1992 food
pyramid, increasing educational features and promoting physical activity to
strengthen the 2005 MyPyramid. Given the confusing nature of this pyramid and the
push for Americans to achieve healthier lifestyles by such proponents as First
Lady Michelle Obama, the pyramid diagram was replaced with the MyPlate diagram in
2011. The much simpler design of this diagram is intended to be a starting point
for achieving a healthy lifestyle; numerous additional materials with dietary
recommendations for different groups of people have been created, along with
advice regarding physical activity. The resources on the ChooseMyPlate website are
intended for anyone to access for educational purposes and to measure one's health
in terms of diet and exercise.

As for international nutritional guidelines, the WHO's Department of Nutrition for
Health and Development has dedicated its website to continuous updates of its
nutrition recommendations based on the latest studies, including such topics as
how much iron, calcium, folic acid, sodium, vitamin A, and other nutrients should
be consumed by children of certain ages, pregnant women, and others.

Bibliography

Barclay, Eliza. "What Might Be Missing
from MyPlate? Water." The Salt. NPR, 12 Jan. 2015. Web. 12
Feb. 2015.

ChooseMyPlate.gov. USDA, 2013.

D’Elgin, Tershia.
What Should I Eat? A Complete Guide to the New Food
Pyramid. New York: Ballantine Books, 2005. Print.

"Food Pyramids and Plates: What Should You Really Eat?" Harvard School of Public Health, Sept. 2011.

Gavin, Mary L. "MyPlate Food Guide." KidsHealth. Nemours Foundation, June 2011.

Mitka, Mike.
“Government Unveils New Food Pyramid: Critics Say Nutrition Tool Is Flawed.”
Journal of the American Medical Association 293.21
(2005): 2581–2. Print.

"MyPlate/Food Pyramid Resources." USDA, 7 Aug. 2013.

Neuman, William.
"Nutrition Plate Unveiled, Replacing Food Pyramid." New York
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"Nutrition."
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