From: altar@beaufort.sfu.ca (Ted Wayn Altar)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.animals
Subject: Re: DIET AND HEALTH NEWS
Date: 26 Jul 92 15:38:47 GMT
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada

Rich Young writes:
. . .
>   This is old news.  The "Eating Right Pyramid" has been re-instated and
>   has been blessed by the Cattlemen's Association.
 
Was it actually "blessed" by the Cattlemen's Association or did 
they simply resign themselves to the inevitable?  The political 
interference on their behalf had raised such an outcry among health 
professionals that I am not surprised that the Cattlemen's Assoc. 
had to capitulate.  
 
. . .
>  There were only two minor changes made to the original:
. . .
>   THERE WAS NO CHANGE IN THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ORIGINAL CHART.
> . . .
 
Well, the visual organization was changed from a 2 dimensional
"eating right pyramid" to that of a 3-dimensional "food guide
pyramid".  Not a substantial change to be sure.  Still, this
yanking of the old "eating right pyramid" by the USDA after
vested-interest trade groups for ranchers, milk producers and
others howled, has cost the American public about $1-million
to test the new (trivially modified) version and produce it.
This cost doesn't include the wasted time (hence wages) of
the politicians and other government officials that had to
wrangle over this issue.

For those who have not yet seen this new visual guide, 
below is a crude rendition of what is supposed to look like a 3-
dimensional pyramid.  Each tier or section of a tier represents a
food grouping.  The numbers represent the number of suggested
servings.
 
Fats, oils & sweets      /\
   use sparingly      //    \
Milk, yogurt,      /\/---+----\  Meat, poultry, fish, beans, eggs
  & cheese 2-3  /  /     |      \    & nuts 2-3
Vegetable    /  \/-------++-------\
   3-5    /    /          |         \    Fruit group 2-4
       /    \/------------+-----------\
      \    /                            \ Bread, cereal, rice & pasta
        \/--------------------------------\   6-11
 
A side point for mathematically/graphically inclined.  With the
"food guide pyramid" being 3-dimensional, the visual scaling is
now even more incommensurate with the numeral number of servings
that are being suggested for each grouping.
 
For example, we have a 4 tier pyramid where the 3rd tier towards
the top is where the diary and meat products are listed (as well
as fish, eggs, legumes & nuts).  The bottom tier or base of the
pyramid lists the "bread, cereal, rice, and pasta group".  Now,
note the discrepancy between the number of servings and the
visual volumes of the tiers where I will define the volume of the
3rd tier as 1.
 
Tier        number of servings   VOLUME of the tiers
 
3rd           4 - 6                   1.0
bottom        6 - 11                  5.3
 
Hence, the number of servings is about a 2 to 1 ratio between the
bottom tier and the 3 rd tier, but the volumetric ratio between
these tiers is about 5 to 1.
 
The original pyramid worked as follows:
 
Tier        number of servings   AREA of pyramid frustum
 
3rd           4 - 6                   1.0
bottom        6 - 11                  2.3
 
Here at least the visual representation and numerical number of
servings is more congruent.
 
Of course, I prefer the visual representation of the 3-
dimensional pyramid and what is "better" suggested by such a visual
representation.  Still, to waste a million dollars on this kind
of revision, and one that makes for a presentational incongruence
must be seen as an unnecessary waste of taxpayers dollars, and
one we can thank the Cattlemen's Assoc. for having instituted.
Quite an expensive "blessing" indeed.
 
                                      ted