'Oh no, I'll have to change my bulletin board,' sighs Mrs. Nilsen, an elementary school teacher in the suburbs.
'I have the food pyramid on my bulletin board, but if they're changing things again...' she trails off, lost in the thoughts of too many paper cuts and precision scissor cutting.
It does appear that what was once the new food pyramid will once again be changed. Currently, the food pyramid uses almost unlimited carbs as its basic building block. As more and more studies reveal their results, however, it is becoming apparent that all you can eat spaghetti is probably not the best diet one can follow.
Currently, there are dueling pyramids, some offered by official organizations, and some by individual practitioners. Whatever pyramid is finally adopted, however, one thing is sure, and that is that there will be some changes coming, which bodes nothing good for Mrs. Nilsen's board.
When I was recently browsing through books at a large thrift store, I happened upon a cookbook by Jane Brody. I already have a different cookbook by the same author, and use it often. The best part is that her recipes all try to follow healthy principles. So, it was with disappointment, that I had to reshelf the recipes, when I saw the subtitle: 'Living the high carbohydrate way'. How 1998.
Even old-time standards like fruits are starting to get a bad rap. Sure, fruit is natural, but it's also full of sugar, and is cited in studies as a culprit for everything from diabetes to aging skin. That's especially bad news for folks who chugged a bottle of orange juice and considered their fruits and vegetables intake partially sated for the day.
Yeah, the orange juice is loaded with vitamins (many added), but it's almost always from concentrate, and amounts to a bottle of sugar water laced with vitamins. Sure, it's better to drink down a glass of orange juice than a can of Coke, but you're certainly better off eating the orange. Even there, however, many suggest watching just how many of even those oranges are actually eaten.
A war is brewing between scholars, researchers, and nutritionists as to how much credence should be given to those who warn of insulin spikes caused by too much sugar and too many carbs. Are carrots the miracle vegetable, fighting cancer and other diseases, or as nefarious as a Hershey's chocolate bar? Bananas are one of the best sources of potassium, but do they really throw off your digestive system? Is corn the new sugar?
Some say we are well on our way to becoming a nation of overweight diabetics, chugging soda pop, super sizing our sundaes, and snacking on Snickers. Now, the good-for-you foods are bad for us too? Maybe, but there are still plenty who easily dismiss the data.
Is green tea the perfect antioxidant that also helps you lose weight? Do tomatoes guard against prostate cancer, or is it only cooked tomatoes? Is pork the new chicken, which was the new beef? If you follow the rules and eat fish at least once every day, do you have to worry about ingesting all that mercury? Is organic produce really worth the extra cash?
Now, new bioengineered crops are billed as the second coming, allowing technologically altered foods to feed the world. Opponents are charging that these same foods may be carcinogenic, destroying monarch butterflies, and forcing out of existence naturally occurring species.
It all depends on who you listen to. In his book, Food, Inc., Peter Pringle examines the potential and the threat posed by bioengineered harvests. Often, the findings come down to who is doing the talking. When scientists charged that the new biotech corn was decimating the monarch butterfly population, Monsanto, the giant corporation behind this new corn, sent out bulletins with information that asserted more monarchs are killed by car windshields and bumpers than by the new corn. Eventually, both claims were disproved.
Until some consensus is arrived at, the best advice is probably to use common sense and eat foods in moderation. So, a grapefruit diet may not be the way to go, but that doesn't mean you should feel OK when you snarf down Big Macs three times a day. Sorry.
