Mr. Pyramid isn't square (or anything else, for that matter)
Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 2:40 pm
There is a funny article in the Economist about the evolution of the USDA's now somewhat infamous "Food Pyramid," known as "MyPyramid," in its latest incarnation (I'd link to the article, but it isn't free). The pyramid started out as a square, the four basic food groups. Since the square seemed to suggest that half your food come from meat and dairy, an unpopular idea by 1992, it was replaced by a pyramid, with each horizontal layer of the pyramid representing a food group and suggesting by its size an appropriate relative amount. But this wasn't completely satisfactory either, for various reasons, including the embarrassing explosion of obesity under the pyramids tenure. But, given pressure from numerous and vocal lobbies, all of which, from the Potato Association of America to the Almond Growers Association to low carbists to high carbists, wanted to see their client's particular product pictured, it was impossible to agree on a single representative image to replace it. So instead, the pyramid has just become a logo, with the horizontal food group layers replaced with meaningless vertical stripes, and a cute little Mr. pyramid jogging up the side (presumably to remind us to do some occasional jogging ourselves). Viewers are invited to visit the web site for customized dietary recommendations ("because everyone is different").
http://www.mypyramid.gov/
Type in your stats on the box on the upper right for your custom advice. Pretty unimaginative! You'd think they could have at least shown the output in pyramid like form.
What astonishes me is not that they can't compress complex nutritional requirements into a graphic the size of a postage stamp, but that they should spend millions of dollars attempting to do so -- several times.
To speak bluntly, is nutrition really that difficult, such a pressing problem? For some people with specific problems, and people in dreadfully poor countries, sure, but are there really vast numbers of undernourished Americans, in desperate need of being reminded by the USDA to eat more vegetables? On the contrary, we are over nourished. Practically speaking, for most of us, nutrition isn't a hard problem. Our instincts are quite sufficient to handle it. Dogs and cats and amoebas handle it. Our dino-rat-fish ancestors would never have made it out of the soup if they couldn't handle it. It's a natural problem and our natures are sufficient to
handle it. What is not a natural problem is excess. You don't see a lot of obese wild animals running around. Not because they wouldn't be obese given the opportunity, but because such opportunities don't exist in nature. Animals and humans don't have instincts to defend against such dangers because such dangers weren't -- until now. Excess is the real problem, and the solution doesn't require a multi million dollar postage stamp.
http://www.mypyramid.gov/
Type in your stats on the box on the upper right for your custom advice. Pretty unimaginative! You'd think they could have at least shown the output in pyramid like form.
What astonishes me is not that they can't compress complex nutritional requirements into a graphic the size of a postage stamp, but that they should spend millions of dollars attempting to do so -- several times.
To speak bluntly, is nutrition really that difficult, such a pressing problem? For some people with specific problems, and people in dreadfully poor countries, sure, but are there really vast numbers of undernourished Americans, in desperate need of being reminded by the USDA to eat more vegetables? On the contrary, we are over nourished. Practically speaking, for most of us, nutrition isn't a hard problem. Our instincts are quite sufficient to handle it. Dogs and cats and amoebas handle it. Our dino-rat-fish ancestors would never have made it out of the soup if they couldn't handle it. It's a natural problem and our natures are sufficient to
handle it. What is not a natural problem is excess. You don't see a lot of obese wild animals running around. Not because they wouldn't be obese given the opportunity, but because such opportunities don't exist in nature. Animals and humans don't have instincts to defend against such dangers because such dangers weren't -- until now. Excess is the real problem, and the solution doesn't require a multi million dollar postage stamp.