Harvard's revised food pyramid

Harvard's School of Public Health has released their recommendations for a new food pyramid. What is your opinion of it?

I agree with their changes. They separated nuts/legumes from the "meat" group and placed red meat at the top (to be used sparingly or never). Fish, poultry and eggs are not mandatory either (0-2 servings recommended). They say dairy is not a necessity (they give the option of taking a calcium supplement in its place).

This new pyramid looks very much like a vegetarian diet! I hope this will gradually become accepted by the general public as the way we were meant to eat to be healthy.

I also like the way they clarified the "grains" category...to note only WHOLE grains should be consumed, while enriched flour products should be avoided. They also de-bunked the myth that fat should be avoided at all cost, by promoting the use of healthy vegetable fats.

Do you agree with the new pyramid? If not, why?
How likely are you to adopt this kind of diet?

Not likely I will change. I am a huge meat eater. The way I feel is no meat, no meal. I also do not count chicken really as meat. Beef is meat. It is very important in my diet or so I believe it to be. Now if people want to be vegetarians that is their choice but if I choose to consume meat that is my decision. I must say that there are certain foods we could use much less of though. I also think that all the processed foods we eat are also the reason in which our health is suffering. Like cancers etc.

This puts me in mind of a woman standing in front of her closet tossing clothes out and putting new in while in the background the TV is tuned to the Vogue channel.

These things come and go. Next week there'll be a study from Yale refuting the Harvard study. Ho Hum.

Catty (who eats what she wants when she wants it and gets around pretty good for an old lady)

quote:

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Originally posted by cattywampus:

These things come and go. Next week there'll be a study from Yale refuting the Harvard study. Ho Hum.

Catty (who eats what she wants when she wants it and gets around pretty good for an old lady)

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Harvard addresses this very issue on their site. From the page I linked, you can click on "Interpreting News on Diet" to read their take on how to evaluate the information that is reported in the media.

I thought you were awfully quick to scoff at the work of Drs. Stampfer and Willet. Willet has spent decades doing long-term studies of different eating patterns around the world. They are not hired guns, paid by, e.g., the dairy industry to (surprise, surprise) "find" that dairy products are the world's most perfect foods. You may not like their conclusions, but I wouldn't put the work of these men in the category of "junk science."

I find your dismissive closing statement to be misleading. I've read a few of your other posts where you mentioned losing 70 pounds with 30 more to go, and that you are on the SlimFast plan. That leads me to believe that eating whatever you wanted led you to become significantly overweight, and that you must not have felt you were able to get around well, otherwise you would not have started the SlimFast plan. Finally, if you are following the SlimFast plan, drinking a shake twice a day with only one meal of "regular" food per day, you must not currently be eating what you want, when you want it.

The new pyramid is a significant improvement from the previous. The repositioning of the bread, rice, pasta category was certainly warranted based on most recent studies.

The couple of things that seem a bit incongruous with the supporting data are:

I think that meat products may be a bit unfairly represented as being less healthy than the stats show.

I think their should be some distinction in the "fruits" category between various items. Some fruits are extremely high in sugar content and could be quite unhealthy if eaten in multiple portions a day.

All in all, it appears to be a step in the right direction in gaining an understanding of the very complex issue of how food is digested, absorbed, metabolized, and finally wasted by our bodies.

I would never adopt this as a dietary guideline. I enjoy the pleasures of food far too much to limit my diet in such a fashion.
I'm all for a sensible diet, but certainly won't fall for every dietary/nutritional fad to come down the pike, whether it comes from Harvard, Yale or Beverly Hills.
Besides, I'm with a previous poster - it's just not a meal without the flesh of an animal mooing on the plate.

Mr(meat the press)Sensitive

well, the new one, like the old one, is a vast oversimplification. dietary needs vary a lot with age, gender, and activeness. for instance, teenage girls and young women (who are the most likely to be vegitarians) have the greatest need for nutrients that are vary hard to find outside of meats and dairy. these women are frequently malnourished in one way or another and will suffer for it later in life (i'm not saying it isn't possible to have a very healthy vegetarian dient, it just takes a lot of planning and most vegetarians in this group don't bother with the planning... nor does this pyramid help). middle-aged men, on the other hand (who are i would guess are very unlikely to be vegetarians), would benefit from a mostly vegetarian diet.
and of course, atheletes have different needs than those who just work out for health.

Sorry, I meant no offense. The medical profession is full of doctors who have decades of this kind of experience and this kind of research and that highfalutin' education. I don't believe I termed any of the honorable doctors' work "junk science." Who were you quoting?

70 pounds, well, I did lose 70 lbs once, with Slim Fast, but then I got sick of the taste, and quit, and sure enough, gained it all back. Now I'm ignoring the taste, sticking with it, and I'm losing again. When I started about 6 mos. ago I weighed 220. I guess that's "substantial" weight. Now I'm down to 177 with about 40 lbs to go. Last week I lost 4 lbs.

I see no dichotomy here. I do eat what I want. Anyone can lose weight by eating what they want. The secret is not to want much! When I lost before I would eat 1/2 slice of toast for lunch. I was full. A half sandwich made me feel bloated.

Mr. Sensitive is right: every diet out there is suspect, or should be, especially when marked "scientific." The truth is, no one knows why people get fat: the thin people say it's because fat people eat too much, while the fat people say it's inherited, or the result of childhood trauma, or bad genes, and the doctors say it's the result of this, or that, or the other thing.

I'm a real couch potato, too. The only exercise I get is posting nonsense at AP. Yet I'm losing, and will continue to lose. I had five sisters and every one of them (plus my mother and myself) were thin as chopsticks until age 35-40, when we started to gain. I see my daughter doing it now.

Sorry to be so long winded.

Catty (who will have to shorten her name soon)

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/53/61207.htm

While this article is not on the subject of the Food Pyramid, I tend to think it does, to a certain degree, help re-enforce it. It discusses some of the hazards of too much red meat and pork in the diet. Or rather a lack of balance when not enough vegetables and other components are not included.