Where's the beef? Not in this diet
Maggie Fox
REUTERS
24-Feb-1999 Wednesday
WASHINGTON -- Not only should Americans eat their fruits and vegetables,
they should make them the cornerstone of their diets, according to a
coalition of health and consumer groups.
Representatives of more than 20 organizations, including the American Heart
Association, the American Cancer Society and the American Association of
Retired Persons, urged the government yesterday to make fruits and
vegetables the center of the ideal American diet in upcoming revised
nutritional guidelines.
"We are suffering, and in some cases dying, from a fruit and vegetable
deficit that is growing larger every day," said Elizabeth Pivonka, a
nutritionist and president of the Produce for Better Health Foundation.
"Taking a daily pill will not make up for this enormous deficit."
The Dietary Guidelines Committee, which includes officials from the
Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services
and top nutritionists from various universities, is scheduled to release
new dietary guidelines next year.
The foundation and other organizations want the guidelines revised to make
fruits and vegetables the core of the recommended diet.
"As the guidelines stand now, they do include fruits and vegetables,"
Pivonka told a news conference. "But simply including them is not enough .
. . . We are petitioning the federal government to emphasize fruits and
vegetables not just as part of a balanced diet but as the core of it."
The current "food pyramid," used as the basis for school lunch programs by
nutritionists and by most nutrition education programs, has at its base
grains, with fruits and vegetables next, then dairy and meat, nuts, beans
and legumes. Topping off the pyramid are fats and sweets.
The groups want this concept revised, with Americans told to center their
diets on fruits and vegetables.
Current guidelines also advise people to eat five servings a day of fruit
and vegetables. But Americans still do not eat enough, Pivonka said.
"We are more than twice as likely to start the day with coffee as with
fruit juice," she said. "We found that only 17 percent of the food we eat
at lunch are fruits, vegetables or 100 percent juice."
Colin Campbell, a professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell University
in New York, said people can get all the nutrients they need from fruits
and vegetables.
"There are no essential nutrients in animal-based foods that are not also
available, to better advantage, in properly grown plant-based foods,"
Campbell said.
Health advocates say there is strong evidence that if people eat more
fruits and vegetables lives and a considerable amount of health care
dollars will be saved.
"Five of the top six causes of death in the United States are
diet-related," Pivonka said.
These include heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.
"The evidence is very strong that those who eat five or more servings of
fruits and vegetables daily are at a lower risk of cancer," Dr. David
Rosenthal, immediate past president of the American Cancer Society, told
the conference.
While one-third of all cancers are related to tobacco use, another third
are related to diet, Rosenthal said.
He said that it would take more than guidelines to get Americans to eat
differently, but that this would be an important first step.
"We showed that we could do it with tobacco," Rosenthal said. "The same
type of cultural change has to take place with eating."
Karen Weber-Cullen, a behavioral scientist at the University of Texas
Anderson Cancer Center, said the right food is often available, but not in
a form that most people want to eat.
"I doubt that most kids go into a fast-food restaurant and order a salad,"
Weber-Cullen told the news conference. "Why do we need a double
cheeseburger? I'd like to see a double tomato burger."
Copyright Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
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