New York - A vegetarian diet pyramid was unveiled recently by nutrition scientists and medical experts from Cornell University in New York, and Harvard University in Massachusetts.
The vegetarian food pyramid, an alternative to the US Food Guide Pyramid, emphasizes a well-balanced vegetarian daily diet based on grains and other plant foods but also includes egg whites and dairy products. Studies link this ovo-lacto diet with much lower rates of certain cancers, obesity, and in some cases, osteoporosis.
"This pyramid reflects the growing body of research that suggests that Americans will not reduce their rate of cancers, cardiovascular disease and other chronic, degenerative diseases until they shift their diets away from animal-based foods to plant-based foods," says Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Cornell professor of nutritional biochemistry and one of the scientists who developed the Vegetarian Diet Pyramid. "Merely eating some low-fat foods or complying with current US dietary recommendations is unlikely to prevent much disease."
At a recent International Conference on Vegetarian Diets held in Austin, Texas, Campbell and colleagues took issue with the current US Food Guide Pyramid that appears on billions of food packages. They say that pyramid is out-of-date because it is based on the 1990 edition of the US Dietary Guidelines and thus does not reflect the government's 1995 edition, which endorses the health value of vegetarian diets.
The government's food pyramid, they point out, places meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts in a single food group, and recommends 2 to 3 servings a day from this group.
At the Austin conference, K. Dun Gifford of Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust, a nonprofit food-issues educational group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, pointed out that such a lumping together of foods "is commonly read to recommend 2 to 3 servings of meat per day."
He asserts that although the US guidelines "clearly urge us to vary what we pick from within this food group," the livestock and meat industry continues to promote two servings of meat a day on packaging labels, and three servings for teen boys and active men.
The new Traditional Healthy Vegetarian Diet Pyramid is divided into three bands, at the base of which are foods to be eaten at every meal: fruits and vegetables, whole grains (oats, wheat, whole-grain bread, barley, couscous, noodles, pasta, corn) and legumes (soy, beans, peanuts, and other legumes). The middle band of foods to eat daily includes nuts and seeds, egg whites, dairy and soy cheese, milk, and plant oils. At the top are optional foods -- whole eggs and sweets -- to be eaten occasionally or in small quantities.
Daily physical activity and drinking "enough water every day for good health" are also stressed. In addition, like the 1995 US Dietary Guidelines, the new pyramid acknowledges the heart-healthy benefits of regular moderate drinking. It places moderate consumption of wine, beer, and other alcohol as an option.
Currently, according to Gifford, an estimated 14 million people in the US describe themselves as vegetarian -- "up from 9 million just a few years ago." And a recent national survey sponsored by Gifford's group indicates that every year one million people adopt a vegetarian diet.
"The new pyramid helps mark the entry of vegetarian eating into the American mainstream," Gifford states.
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