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- THE WEEK, Page 16HEALTH & SCIENCEWatch What You Eat
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- A new teaching tool redefines food guidelines -- and stirs up
- controversy
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- The new food guide pyramid, erected last week by the
- Agriculture Department, looks like a perfect update of the good
- old four-food-groups diagrams kids have been seeing in school
- cafeterias since the 1950s. The chart reorganizes edibles into
- five groups, graphically illustrating the latest nutritional
- correctness: bread and pasta are great for you, so eat lots;
- fruits and vegetables are good; meats, dairy products, beans and
- nuts are O.K.; and fats and sweets are trouble, not even a
- full-fledged group, and should be squeezed into the smallest
- possible corner of the diet.
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- It may seem like a modest revision, but that doesn't mean
- it was easy to produce. Originally scheduled for release a year
- ago as an educational tool, it was held up when the meat and
- dairy industries argued that it bad-mouthed their products.
- Developing the pyramid had already cost about $100,000, and it
- took another year and $855,000 of research to make sure
- consumers understood that foods shouldn't be seen as good or
- evil. And that in turn angered nutritionists, who thought the
- extra time and money were politically motivated waste.
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