Pyramid for moms
October 28, 2007
The USDA has just announced its new MyPyramid for moms–for the special nutritional needs of women who are pregnant, nursing, or expecting twins, triplets, or more. You log in a bunch of information about yourself and your condition, and bingo! You get your own private dietary prescription. Anyone out there pregnant or nursing? Try it and see if it’s useful.
Wait - aren’t Pyramid Schemes illegal?
Anyway, I input some sample data and the results are pretty um not helpful. Like, “aim for two cups of orange vegetables weekly”, rather than what I would advocate: Eat diverse, high quality food - especially, organic farmers’ market vegetables.
Oh, if you click on Tips for Meat & Beans, you are told to trim/remove every tiny bit of fat and skin from whatever you’re eating - ensuring it has absolutely no flavor. Wow - how’s that going to make the mother happy and heathly?!
And of course, it never suggests things such as, “While pregnant, avoid eating at fast food restaurants, because, afterall you wouldn’t want your child to be predisposed to fast food.”
Comment by Jack at Fork & Bottle — October 29, 2007 @ 3:04 am
“Wait - aren’t Pyramid Schemes illegal?”
Hilarious!
I don’t think the United States Dairy Association’s –oops I mean U.S. Department of Agriculture’s My Pyramid is helpful for anyone outside of the dairy industry.
What interest does the USDA have in saying we should eat as many servings of dairy as of vegetables and more dairy than fruit? It certainly isn’t in the interest of public health to consume “more dairy.”
With the USDA both promoting all agriculture, regardless of its nutritional value, and also attempting to provide healthy eating guidelines is just a big fat conflict of interest. It’s like having the police promote bank robbing while at the same time “protecting” the public–and the bank. We’re being robbed here as well– of information to promote and sustain our health.
If Congress really wanted Americans to have information about nutrition that would help Control and Prevent Diseases, they would redirect the nutrition teaching (as well as food ads, food labeling and food safety) to the CDC, the CENTERS for DISEASE CONTROL and PREVENTION. The CDC is in the ‘business’ of Public Health.
Let’s ask those people in office to do this:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
http://senate.gov/
Comment by Daniel, Ithaca NY — October 29, 2007 @ 11:44 am