A mummy from the pyramidal catacombs ?
By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated Columnist
First Published in Print: 06/11/2011
FOOD AND health and safety issues cooked up more news within the last two weeks than Lindsay Lohan and Oprah Winfrey combined! Is the public appetite changing?
A toppled pyramid, fishy fish, killer bacteria stalking European food supplies, Ronald MacDonald's job threatened and the FDA taking heat on the back burner . . . how to digest it all?
Let's begin with the dismantling of the 2005 food pyramid --that charming but baffling icon developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that was supposed to somehow guide us toward healthier nutritional habits. But few Americans could crack the mysterious code of the old-world pyramid and its six unlabeled columns, all the while our nation's obesity and diabetes epidemics swiftly expanded.
Americans puzzled over the nutritional significance of the staircase -- or escalator? -- appended to the pyramid. They were distracted by the disarticulated humanoid figure that loitered on it. Was it a mummy emerging from the pyramidal catacombs? Was its disarticulation merely metaphor for the entire icon's failure to articulate a coherent message about good nutrition? Why was it running away from "the five food groups" jumbled at the pyramid's base -- especially if they were supposed to be good for us? Sadly, in the wake of the food pyramid's recent dismantling, we may never find out.the
But the USDA did give us a new and more straightforward food icon to ponder: the common dinner plate. Named "MyPlate," it is divided into four labeled sections to advocate routine servings of fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein with each meal. Alongside MyPlate is a small circle that allegedly suggests a glass of milk or other low-fat dairy. It made me think of a cookie.
As a doctor and food consumer, I am happy to see MyPlate topple the ancient food pyramid. It is more decipherable and user-friendly for planning balanced diets. Its unambiguous prompt to fill half -- yes, an entire half! -- of our plates with fruits and vegetables is an urgent message that needs widespread home delivery.
Oddly, USDA officials spent over three years and $2.9 million to develop MyPlate -- the same time and dollar costs required to construct a modest pyramid today. Still, the plate is a winning investment when it comes to health, dishing out other helpful advice in the small print: to also limit sugar, salt, and fat intake.
I have two major quibbles with MyPlate -- first, it should be 3-D to suggest a ceiling on the actual amount of food (calories, really) within each of its quadrants. I suggest this having dined recently at an all-you-can-eat casino buffet where we patrons regularly struggled to balance giant food towers on large serving plates while en route to our tables. I am not calling for the "food police" but, rather, a wise nutritionist to advise about optimal daily caloric consumption -- the key ingredient to body weight management.
My second quibble is that the plate's section labeled "protein" seems to be dishing two other sections of the plate -- "vegetables" and "grains" -- that already contain dietary protein. Ostensibly, it intends to direct us toward routine intake of animal protein like meat and fish -- even though we've been regularly served with rather grim health news about eating "too much" red meat.
When it comes to putting fish on our plates -- well, as we've learned, that might be a very fishy proposal. In a report titled "Bait and Switch" released May 27 by the environmental group Oceana, researchers using DNA tests claim that our seafood is mislabeled 25 percent to 70 percent of the time. Reportedly, FDA port inspections reveal that a third of seafood sold in the U.S. is something other than its labeled identity. Presumably, this problem arises because the price of fish has escalated nearly 30 percent within the last decade, allowing human sharks operating seafood businesses to haul fortunes selling fraudulent fish.
Beyond tough philosophical questions about the very nature of "fish," we must now also ponder the possible environmental and health risks posed by fish fakery. For example, as Oceana contends, consumers "should be outraged if they order snapper and they get tilapia or some endangered species," and they should know when they're actually eating farm-raised salmon that could contain more fat and antibiotics than its wild cousin. For me, the bottom line is that it's hard to trust anything else claimed on packages of market fish when you can't even trust the labeled names to be accurate.
Critics charge that food regulators like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are too lax when it comes to regulating seafood. Oceana notes that 84 percent of seafood consumed within the US is imported -- often passing through multifaceted global supply chains -- while only 2 percent is inspected.
Acknowledging our nation's frayed and antiquated food safety and inspection system, President Barack Obama earlier this year signed into law the Food Safety Modernization Act -- the first major legislation related to the FDA's food safety authority since 1938. The main problem then: The system was starved for funds. The bigger problem now: HR2112, a bill in the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee aiming to further defund the FDA's budget by $87 million. It additionally hopes to defund by $35 million the Food Safety Inspection Service operated by the USDA which inspects eggs, meat and dairy products.
Meanwhile, deadly E. coli bacteria have been tracking through the European food system for the last three weeks, and several Americans have imported the infection from travel abroad. As of Thursday morning -- after at least 26 deaths and 2,700 known cases spread across 13 countries -- health officials still cannot locate the source of the outbreak.
Scientists have determined that this particularly lethal strain of E. coli is "evolved" -- that is, it has learned to become resistant to antibiotics through Darwinian adaptations to repetitive antibiotic exposure. This segues into news of a lawsuit filed last week against our beleaguered FDA, demanding that the agency ban the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in farm animals. It is known that run-of-the-mill bacteria often develop drug resistance on antibiotic-soaked animal farms. Current data suggest that upward of 70 percent of all antibiotics sold in the United States end up in farm animals to promote their growth or prevent infections.
Finally, blame for our nation's questionable food safety and poor nutritional habits has extended beyond finger-pointing at the pyramid, the FDA and USDA, masquerading fish, Europe, antibiotic overuse, and farmers. Last month, an orange-haired clown was also fingered. Ronald MacDonald was clobbered by consumer advocates who, along with 600 health care professionals, demanded that MacDonald's cease its marketing of fast foods to kids and hand the pink slip to its celebrity ringleader, Ronald. But the company declined, its CEO countering that Ronald was "a force for good." In fact, on May 17, the company hosted a special ceremony in Wisconsin to celebrate one man's consumption of his 25,000th Big Mac.
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Kate Scannell is a Bay Area physician and the author of "Flood Stage."
Copyright 2011, Kate Scannell