How to Compare Old & New Food Pyramids
According to nutritionist Marion Nestle, the 1992 food pyramid was the product of intense negotiations between nutritionists and food industry lobbyists. The result was a watered-down set of recommendations that offered some degree of guidance but lacked teeth in its primary purpose to guide Americans to eat a healthier diet. But the revised 2005 pyramid is even weaker in its offerings of practical, useful dietary advice. Although the new version is intended as an introduction to an interactive website that offers more detailed, customized eating tips, it offers little value and substance in itself.
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Instructions
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Observe the orientation of the lines in the old and new pyramids. In the old pyramid, the horizontal lines of varying length clearly indicate that we should eat more of the foods at the base, or wide part of the pyramid. In the new pyramid, the lines are vertical and, although they vary in thickness corresponding to recommendations of how much of a food group to eat, there is no clear sequence hierarchically to show guidance on eating more of some foods and less of others.
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Visit the the USDA's website, Mypyramid.gov, which is designed to clarify and customize the information in the 2005 pyramid. Unlike the 1992 pyramid, this strategy builds on the fact that nutritional requirements vary according to sex and age group, and also with your level of exercise. However, as Nestle points out, this technological approach makes the information disproportionately available to people with computers, who probably need it the least.
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Notice the units on the respective pyramids indicating the recommended quantities of different types of food. The old pyramid suggested numbers of servings, while the new pyramid offers specific amounts such as 6 ounces of grains, and 3 cups of milk. The serving sizes on the old pyramid vary for different foods, even within the same food group; for example, a serving of meat is 2 to 3 ounces, while a serving of tofu is 7 ounces. This aspect of the new pyramid is an improvement over the old one. Nonetheless, the specifications in the new pyramid tend to be "one size fits all": it recommends that we consume 5.5 ounces of meat or beans, without making any distinction between meat and tofu, as the old pyramid did.
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