Food Pyramids and Diet for Irritable Bowel Syndrome
i have mentioned that while I generally agree with the Heather Van Vorous website
Heather has recently endorsed the old understanding of the food pyramid promulgated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This is the pyramid that was widely taught in schools, and pictured on cereal boxes, and otherwise used to promote particular food choice.
Indeed, this is the pyramid that posters in my doctor’s office advertise.
Here is a picture of the old, outdate USDA pyramid. It tells you to eat lots of servings of carbohydrates every day, and very few servings of fats–the high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet, in other words. Twenty years of religiously following that diet put me at high risk for heart disease, and it did not save me from IBS.
The clearest criticism of both the old USDA, and the new web-based USDA pyramid, comes from an article by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). They say, to begin with:
What Should You Really Eat?
More than a decade ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture created a powerful and enduring icon - the Food Guide Pyramid. This simple illustration conveyed in a flash what the USDA said were the elements of a healthy diet. The Pyramid was taught in schools, appeared in countless media articles and brochures, and was plastered on cereal boxes and food labels.
Tragically, the information embodied in this pyramid didn’t point the way to healthy eating. Why not? Its blueprint was based on shaky scientific evidence, and it barely changed over the years to reflect major advances in our understanding of the connection between diet and health.
With much fanfare, the USDA recently retired the old Food Guide Pyramid and replaced it with MyPyramid, a new symbol and “interactive food guidance system.” The new symbol is basically the old Pyramid turned on its side.
The good news is that this dismantles and buries the flawed Pyramid. The bad news is that the new symbol doesn’t convey enough information to help you make informed choices about your diet and long-term health. And it continues to recommend foods that aren’t essential to good health, and may even be detrimental in the quantities included in MyPyramid.
As an alternative to the USDA’s flawed pyramid, faculty members in the Harvard School of Public Health built the Healthy Eating Pyramid. It resembles the USDA’s in shape only. The Healthy Eating Pyramid takes into consideration, and puts into perspective, the wealth of research conducted during the last ten years that has reshaped the definition of healthy eating.
The introduction above is found here on the web. The article continues with the rationale, science, and elements of building the good pyramid they ultimately recommend. It makes for informative reading.
And then for informative graphics, here is the pyramid built on their recommendations, a pyramid that is easy to follow, easy to understand:
Here is my word-picture of the pyramid:
A new healthy food pyramid that shows a bottom layer called “Daily Exercise and Weight Control.” Then half of the next layer consists of whole grains (for most, but not all, meals), together with the other half consisting of plant oils, such as canola and olive oil. The next higher layer consists half and half of fruits and of vegetables–in abundance. The next highest layer consists of nuts and legumes, 1 to 3 servings a day. Then above that, small servings of fish, poultry, or eggs (0 to 3 times a day). Yet a smaller layer says Dairy or Calcium supplement 1 or 2 times a day. Finally, there are two tiny sections that form the very point of the pyramid. One section reads white rice, white bread, white pasta, potatoes, soda, and sweets. The other half of this top part of the pyramid reads “red meat & butter.” These two sections are separated from the rest of the pyrmaid by airspace, and the words within the airspace “use sparingly” point upwards towards the apex or point of the pyramid.
And here is the HSPH text introducing and showing the new pyramid:
Building a Better Pyramid
If the only goal of the Food Guide Pyramid is to give us the best possible advice for healthy eating, then it should be grounded in the evidence and be independent of business.
Instead of waiting for this to happen, nutrition experts from the Harvard School of Public Health created the Healthy Eating Pyramid. It is based on the best available scientific evidence about the links between diet and health. This new pyramid fixes fundamental flaws in the USDA pyramid and offers sound information to help people make better choices about what to eat.
From EAT, DRINK, AND BE HEALTHY by Walter C. Willett, M.D. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Reprinted by permission of Free Press/Simon & Schuster, Inc.The Healthy Eating Pyramid sits on a foundation of daily exercise and weight control. Why? These two related elements strongly influence your chances of staying healthy. They also affect what and how you eat and how your food affects you. The other bricks of the Healthy Eating Pyramid include:
- Whole Grain Foods (at most meals). The body needs carbohydrates mainly for energy. The best sources of carbohydrates are whole grains such as oatmeal, whole-wheat bread, and brown rice. They deliver the outer (bran) and inner (germ) layers along with energy-rich starch. The body can’t digest whole grains as quickly as it can highly processed carbohydrates such as white flour. This keeps blood sugar and insulin levels from rising, then falling, too quickly. Better control of blood sugar and insulin can keep hunger at bay and may prevent the development of type 2 diabetes.
- Plant Oils. Surprised that the Healthy Eating Pyramid puts some fats near the base, indicating they are okay to eat? Although this recommendation seems to go against conventional wisdom, it’s exactly in line with the evidence and with common eating habits. The average American gets one third or more of his or her daily calories from fats, so placing them near the foundation of the pyramid makes sense. Note, though, that it specifically mentions plant oils, not all types of fat. Good sources of healthy unsaturated fats include olive, canola, soy, corn, sunflower, peanut, and other vegetable oils, as well as fatty fish such as salmon. These healthy fats not only improve cholesterol levels (when eaten in place of highly processed carbohydrates) but can also protect the heart from sudden and potentially deadly rhythm problems.(3)
- Vegetables (in abundance) and Fruits (2 to 3 times). A diet rich in fruits and vegetables can decrease the chances of having a heart attack or stroke; protect against a variety of cancers; lower blood pressure; help you avoid the painful intestinal ailment called diverticulitis; guard against cataract and macular degeneration, the major cause of vision loss among people over age 65; and add variety to your diet and wake up your palate.
Again, the web site for the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) article is here, accessed 4/23/07, and is recommended reading for a complete overview of the pyramid.
The HSPH article goes on to recommend a daily multivitamin, and to permit alcohol in moderation, by which they mean at most one drink a day for women, and no more than 1 or 2 drinks per day for men.
What does this mean for IBS? We’ll be exploring this question in future posts. In the mean time, what are your thoughts?