New pyramid rises, fat fatalities

The Rusty Saber has in the past remarked on the seemingly continuous cycle of official opinions

regarding healthy eating. For instance, most adults probably recall how official declarations about the health value of eggs have fluctuated from healthy to unhealthy and back again.

And a few years ago, oat bran was pointed to as a miracle food for all of us. Oat bran, every bit as tasty as sand, was literally flying off super market shelves. Once all health-conscious eaters were filled to

the brim with oat bran muffins and the like, the word

came out the food value of oat bran may have been overstated. The good news: the stuff wouldn’t do any dietary harm.

The news items in question both hit the streets April 20: The U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled a revamped, color-coded food pyramid.

Also on that date, a news report was circulated about an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association revising claims regarding the serious results of obesity. In fact, some overweight, but not obese, people don’t seem to suffer as high a mortality rate as those of normal weight.

The new food pyramid is redesigned to include physical exercise. To keep the pyramid concept, the pyramid is turned on its side, with grains, veggies, fruits, milk and meats/beans listed vertically with a figure climbing a stairway, symbolic of exercise, completing the design.

The new pyramid calls for more fruits and veggies and whole grains. There’s nothing wrong with that. Most of us are aware of the value of fruits and veggies; why wait until now to up the daily totals?

Reminiscent of the oat bran saga, along with increased whole grains is a recommended reduction in overall grain consumption. The perplexing challenge may be figuring out how to increase whole grains while trimming overall grain consumption.

As would be expected, several groups are critical of various changes. To some, the changes were good but should have gone further; others believe they shouldn’t have been made at all.

The new guide to healthy eating and exercise is probably good. But the temptation is to wonder when a new food pyramid will appear that will again alter the rules. Computer users can log on to www.mypyramid.gov to find out all about healthfully blending diet and exercise.

The obesity article is of interest to people who are able to determine if their weight makes them normal,

overweight or obese. According to the research data, the previous report that excess weight was about to overtake tobacco as the leading cause of deaths was incorrect. Some anti-smoking advocates had been upset with this assertion because it was taking away from the

campaign against smoking, which continues to

claim victims at an alarming rate.

According to the Wall Street Journal, being too heavy is now the seventh leading cause of death, a far cry from No. 1. Apparently, researchers say overweight resides somewhere between normal and obese. This group puts a crimp in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s overweight-equals-death-equation. The original report didn’t make a distinction between merely overweight and obese. It isn’t surprising that fewer deaths were recorded by the overweight than the obese; that the overweight group had fewer deaths than the normal weight people is a head-scratching puzzle.

Obesity is still a major health hazard, albeit not as much as was once thought. Plan your diet accordingly. Eventually, the powers that be will come forward with another new and improved food pyramid as well as a new cause-effect explanation of mortality rates. Eventually they may even get them right.

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.