Food Fight

Do you need to eat grains and dairy for good health? Is a bowl of cereal with milk a good way to begin the day? Does every body need milk? The answer to all three questions is a big NO! The overwhelming majority of the world’s populations cannot handle milk after infancy: it causes acute gastric distress. Significant numbers of individuals also are sensitive to the gluten found in wheat, oats, and barley. Their health is sub-optimal when they eat grains.

But the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) either is unaware of these facts (hard to believe) or does not care. Why? Because they are more interested in maintaining the profitability of Agribusiness than in maintaining the optimal health of consumers. Yes, they are concerned about food safety which does, obviously, impact consumer health. However, beyond food safety is the issue of nutrient optimization; and it is here that the USDA’s hand-in-glove relationship with Agribusiness takes precedence over what is best for the consumer.

Over the past decades, the public has been indoctrinated into believing that grains and dairy are the basis of good health. First there was the Four Squares with grains and dairy each having their own square. Then there was the Food Pyramid with grains forming the foundation and dairy taking up a significant chunk of the upper levels. The current iteration is a revised pyramid with conical stripes running from base to tip called My Pyramid. This version is designed to take into account an individual’s gender, age, and activity level in designing a pyramid just for that individual. Or so says the USDA.

I tried using it when it was first posted online a few years ago. The results were not too surprising, or too different from prior recommendations, and included a daily intake of three glasses of milk. I decided to see what the results would be for other gender and age combinations. The biggest change was in daily calorie intake. One constant: no matter what age/gender combination I used, everyone was told he/she needed three glasses of milk each day. Hmm…

I would suggest that you try this for yourselves, but when I tried to log on to the site today, I got a “website cannot be found” message even though the USDA origin page shows that it was recently updated. Maybe the USDA is doing an upgrade? I don’t know. But keep checking so that you can try it yourself and let me know what you find out.