Government's food pyramid is like a pyramid scheme

If you're like me, you find the government's newest version of the food pyramid downright pathetic. For an obese nation, we need a pyramid that knocks the side of the head with information on how to eat.

What's purple? Should you eat less of red than green? Is the green actually larger than red, or is it an optical illusion?

Being confusing is one thing but if you'll dig deeper, I think you can tell who was lobbying for the project.The new pyramid is actually grouping legumes and fish with beef! And get a load of the blue - it's dairy! If I'm reading this right - and it's hard to do so - you should eat about the same amount of dairy as you do fruits and vegetables combined! And counting orange juice as a fruit serving?

It's criminal to not be clear but to purposely dilute the truth in such an important image. In theory this image will be in classrooms across the U.S.

This is where my heart-felt thanks go out to Oldways the widely-respected non-profit that translates the complex details of nutrition science into the familiar language of food. It created the Mediterranean Food Pyramid.

Oldways also creates and organizes a wide variety of other educational activities, conferences and materials about healthy eating, drinking, lifestyle and the traditional pleasures of the table. Its educational programs are for consumers, scientists, the food industry, health professionals, chefs, journalists and policy makers.

Their food pyramid for children delivers the facts, plain and simple. There's a reason why people living near the Mediterrean live longer and healthier lives.

Obama vows to improve the food

Excerpts from a New York Times article by Gardiner Harris on 3/15/09

The president says he'll toughen regulations and seek $1 billion for more inspectors and newer labs.

Describing government's failure to inspect 95 percent of food processing plants as "a hazard to the public health," President Obama promised Saturday to bolster and reorganize the nation's fractured food-safety system.

"In the end, food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your president, but as a parent," he said.

The call for fundamental changes in the nation's food-protection system follows a massive salmonella outbreak in peanut products that has sickened more than 700 people, killed nine -- including three Minnesotans -- and led to one of the largest recalls in U.S. history.