USDA Food Pyramid: A Pyramid Scheme?

By Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades

The US government has spent a quarter century and countless millions of dollars promoting a low-fat, high-grain (carbohydrate) diet as the optimal model for health and nutrition.   It is called the USDA Food Guide Pyramid. But given the lack of study behind this formula and the food industry's role in how it came to be, perhaps a better term would be the USDA Pyramid Scheme.

In 1977, the US Senate's McGovern Select Committee recommended Americans cut their fat consumption and eat more grain.   This decision was based on testimony from scientists, many of whom had strong ties to major US food producers who stood to gain financially if Americans followed their experts' advice.   Despite sound scientific evidence to the contrary, and documentation of the food industry's role in biased research, the committee issued its mandate: Eat less fat and more grains.   This formula has been in effect ever since, with the well known, well-promoted visual aid known as the USDA Food Guide Pyramid found all around us.   All government agencies are required by law to promote the Food Pyramid.

The results have been devastating.   American fat consumption is now at its all-time low.   But over the last decade, obesity has increased by 30%, pediatric obesity has doubled and type II diabetes is up nearly twelve-fold.   By cutting their fat intake and eating more grain, Americans have only gotten fatter.

Three out of four people in America suffer hyperinsulinemia to one degree or another.   This means the body produces excess insulin in response to high blood sugar. Bread, rice, pasta and cereal, the foundation of the USDA Food Pyramid, turn to sugar in the bloodstream.   Consistent excess insulin leads to obesity, type II diabetes, heart disease and other weight-related illnesses.

Critics call the low-carb, high-protein diet a fad, but nothing could be further from the truth.   For 2.7 million years, humans ate a meat-based diet including little if any grain.   Evidence shows that obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other weight-related illnesses did not occur until after the Agricultural Revolution, at which time humans switched to a grain-based diet.   These diseases are virtually non-existent among the world's remaining hunter-gatherer societies.

If anything is a fad, it is the USDA Food Pyramid. Humans have not had time to adapt to this radical, new way of eating and it is wreaking havoc on our bodies.   Meat, fruits and vegetables are what humans were designed to eat ­ not grains.   Reams of published research show both the benefits of meat and the problems with grain.   But if Uncle Sam were to recommend we switch to a meat-based diet, he'd be biting the hand that feeds him.   The food industry's number one customer is ­ no surprise ­ the federal government.

A significant recent example of industry influence can be found in the 2000 US Dietary Guidelines.   Citing ties between sugar and obesity, USDA scientists recommended the Guidelines encourage Americans to "limit" their sugar intake, calling the 1995 recommendation ­"Choose a diet moderate in sugar" ­ too vague.   Initially, the new recommendation was approved.   But after major pressure from sugar producers and 30 US Senators, most of whom represented sugar producing states, the USDA acquiesced and, two months later, the word "limit" was changed back to "moderate".

In 1999, FDA researchers cited 28 studies documenting the ill effects of soy, including an increased risk of breast cancer in women, decreased brain function in men and developmental abnormalities in infants.   Despite this somber warning, the FDA went on to issue a health claim stating that soy "may reduce the risk of heart disease."   This after a decade-long marketing campaign by major soy producers.

We are especially concerned about the USDA's upcoming test on popular weight loss diets.   The January 11 public hearing on this test says it all.   Despite the fact that researchers will be looking at the benefits of both low-fat and low-carb diets, not one low-carb diet expert was invited to speak at the hearing.   Uncle Sam's bias is already showing and the study has yet to begin.

In short, the food industry has been using the federal government to push an unhealthy diet on the country and Americans are paying the price.   It's a war between profits and health, and 280 million Americans seem to be outnumbered.

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Drs. Michael R. and Mary Dan Eades, authors of the New York Times bestseller "Protein Power" and "Protein Power Lifeplan," are practicing physicians and founders of The Colorado Center for Metabolic Medicine in Boulder, CO.