Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Mediterranean diet food pyramid

Question:
I sent this request to the website of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA:) Can you please send me information on the research studies which verify that the food pyramid is the healthiest known diet? You can send it in html or pdf form, or even in a real letter if you want. Thanks for your help.

Answer:
The Food Guide Pyramid is a graphical educational tool for conveying the principles in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/DietGd.pdf) The scientists who put together the Dietary Guidelines worked for years reviewing thousands of nutrition research studies on which to base the recommendations. In fact, this library has 5 volumes of printouts of just the study citations (not the actual articles, just the citations). If you happen to live in or visit the area, you are most welcome to come here to look at them. Unfortunately, they are not lent out by the library. The scientists who wrote the Guidelines did not base their recommendations on a few studies but on many, which were reviewed for their scientific soundness. Another point I want to make is that there never has been and never will be a study to give us the ultimate evidence that the Pyramid represents the best or only eating pattern people should follow. This would involve a randomized trial in which large groups of individuals were each put on different eating patterns for the rest of their lives and followed closely to look at health outcomes. This is not practical since you really couldn't assure that people were following the diet nor that you could stay in touch with them over the years. It would also be prohibitively expensive. Instead, the current recommendations are based on a huge body of literature and the considered opinions of scientists. The other issue I want to raise is that there isn't just one way to follow the Pyramid. For instance, you may have heard of the Mediterranean Diet. (In fact there is no one Mediterranean Diet either since there are a number of different eating patterns represented by Mediterranean peoples) There are ways of following the Pyramid that would result in a pattern similar to the Mediterranean Diet. Vegetarians can also meet the Pyramid. So there are really a number of different ways of eating that fall within the Pyramid. Now, that probably is not a very satisfying answer to your question. If there is a more specific way I may be able to help you, please let me know. I don't know if you have had a chance to look at our web site, but there is a page of information on the Food Guide Pyramid at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/Fpyr/pyramid.html and on the Dietary Guidelines at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/dga/index.html