UNDER CONSTRUCTION: The USDA Food Pyramid !!!

Every five years, the USDA revises the Dietary Guidelines For Americans. Here are my recommendations submitted today, to update The USDA Food Pyramid, a.k.a, "My Pyramid".
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Dear Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Members:

Please allow me to introduce myself. As a registered dietitian [Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 1984], I have practiced medical nutrition therapy for over 25 years. I am also a health reporter and publisher of healthypeople.com

I do believe the predicament with The Pyramid is grains at the bottom. Thankfully the solution is simple: place VEGETABLES at the Base of The Pyramid …especially, the leafy green ones to help manage inflammation and pH Balance within the system. Simply shift this paradigm.

We have medical visionaries amongst us. Pioneers in Integrative Medicine, such as Andrew Weil, M.D., Dean Ornish, M.D., Christiane Northrup, M.D., Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. M.D., T. Colin Campbell, M.D., Neal Barnard, M.D., all of whom would agree USA’s health care dilemma stems from diseases of lifestyle. Since inflammation precipitates most medical conditions, it stands to reason if we manage inflammation we can manage any chronic condition. This includes heart disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, cancers, immune disorders, depression, etc.

Thanks to these integrative medical pioneers, we now know the basic challenge for us all boils down to condition coined by Andrew Weil, M.D. as “low grade inflammation”. And, we can measure our progress with periodic hemoglobin A1C tests.

The question is: How do we manage inflammation?

Part of the answer is consuming alkaline foods [like green leafy vegetables] and alkaline beverages [like green drinks, phyto-plankton based beverages], or consuming foods which break down into an alkaline ash [e.g., like grapefruits].

Including Omega 3 fats or foods rich in Omega 3 fatty acids [unprocessed soy, salmon, walnuts, grass-fed meat and “Omega-3 rich” eggs, flax seeds, hemp seeds, hemp milk, grasses, etc.] is another method to manage inflammation.

Naturally occurring COX 2 inhibitors: Some foods, like black cherries, manage inflammation with COX 2 inhibitors. Cannabis also contains COX 2 inhibitors, which is why marijuana pills are now being prescribed for chronic pain.

Consumption of antioxidants and phyto-nutrients is yet another strategy to control inflammatory reactions. Most fresh or frozen fruits, vegetables and whole grains are naturally rich in phyto-nutrients and antioxidants.

Another priority is to identify foods, beverages and other variables which aggravate inflammation. Refined oils and sugars, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides all trigger inflammation. Cookware can be toxic, such as heated plastic which seeps into foods and beverages. Or, Styrofoam molecules which float into hot coffee or tea via osmosis. It does not take a rocket scientist to decipher that petro-chemically based ingredients [like artificial colors] and plastics ingested will aggravate inflammation …or that rocket fuel in our water is not such a good thing. It is not just about what we eat, but how we live.

Education is the key. We must educate the public [employees, patients, children, parents, students, the elderly, etc.] on a variety of timely topics:

- Manage pH/Acid-Base balance with leafy greens and alkaline.

- Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load as tools to manage blood sugars. Excess sugars and starches trigger inflammation, as well as insulin and hyper-triglyceridemia. They should be considered key contributors to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancers, etc. The more nutrient-dense versions of carbohydrate will contain vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants which helps compensate for the inherently high glycemic index, and can be consumed with protein-rich cuisine to slow the rate carbohydrate will enter the bloodstream.

- Most artificial sweeteners have a high glycemic index and elicit an insulin response, even though they contain very few Calories. [By the way, Stevia is not an artificial flavor. It is a sweet tasting herb which contains no carbohydrate, so does not trigger insulin response.]

- Processed oils trigger inflammation. Learn to select raw nuts, expeller pressed or unrefined oils not subjected to extreme temperatures. Oil in clear bottles exposed to light accelerates rancidity, creating more peroxides (free radicals) further igniting inflammation. Recommend oils be stored in tinted glass bottles (instead of plastic, which seeps into the fluid it contains, especially when temperatures rise.)

- Petro-chemically based ingredients must be managed: artificial food colors and dyes, fungicides/herbicides/pesticides all trigger the inflammatory process and be monitored by parents concerned with ADD/ADHD.

Well… this should keep us busy for the next five or ten years… until the next big breakthrough on the final frontier of Integrative Medicine comes to light.

Respectfully submitted,

Helene Berk, M.Ed., R.D.
Registered Dietitian, Health Reporter, Publisher of healthypeople.com

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