Eating your veggies

The federal government and private industries will soon partner to spend millions of dollars reminding Americans to do something mothers already advise: eat more fruits and vegetables.

A new public relations campaign, reportedly set to debut in March 2007, will abandon the government’s previous “5 a Day” advertising blitz, which encourages individuals to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables daily. In its place, the government and the not-for-profit Produce for Better Health Foundation will role out a new message: “Fruits and Veggies – More Matters.”

The re-tooled slogan is apparently the newest front in a larger war the government is fighting against an epidemic of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Nearly two-thirds of Americans are now overweight or obese. About 800,000 new cases of diabetes are diagnosed each year. And heart disease has become the number one cause of death in the U.S.

Washington blames these alarming statistics on the average American diet, which has seen waistlines continue to expand even as consumers empty their wallets to pay for weight loss programs and diet books. Marketdata, a private research firm, estimates the weight loss industry will be worth about $60 billion or more by 2008.

In an effort to combat the health crisis, the government is now using a back-to-basics approach, imploring Americans to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, cut back on meat and bread, and add regular exercise to their plates. Revised nutrition labeling and more stringent controls on food manufacturers have also been implemented. But the focus of the government’s strategy is that Americans need to alter their daily diet rather than to diet.

“If all you do is pop a frozen meal in the microwave—even one designed for one of today’s popular diets—you lose out on the health variety of fruits and vegetables that are necessary for a balanced diet,” said Elizabeth Pivonoka, the CEO of Produce for Better Health and a registered dietician.

The foundation, created in 1991, is supported by produce farmers and distributors. Last December the group altered its suggestion that consumers eat five servings of produce each day. Pivonka now says half of the servings in every meal should consist of fruits and vegetables.

Why the sudden the shift to what many scientists call a “whole foods” approach?

Recent nutrition studies suggest both the <em>quantity</em> and <em>quality</em> of food Americans eat are to blame for their declining health. These studies—including several done for the U.S. Department of Agriculture—show Americans consume the bulk of daily calories from processed and packaged goods, as well as from fast food. One USDA study says Americans eat 500 more calories each day than they did 30 years ago. According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, most of those additional calories come from three sources: refined flours and grains, processed sugars and saturated and “trans” fats.  At the same time, Americans are doing less aerobic activity than they did during the 1970s. Translation: while Americans are eating more calories each day, they are doing less work to burn them off.

In 2005, in response to mounting criticism of its dietary guidelines, the USDA overhauled its national nutrition program. The agency issued new recommendations and trashed its decades-old “Food Pyramid,” which suggested the largest source of daily calories come from bread, pasta and rice. The new pyramid is composed of vertical sections that narrow near the top to represent moderation, or eating less. It also features a man climbing the pyramid to represent the importance of physical activity.

“It always comes back to you eat your fruits and vegetables, watch your calorie intake, and exercise,” said Tommy Thompson, the former Secretary of Health and Human Services, when he announced the new standards. “Lower your intake of fats and sugars and salt and increase vitamins and vegetables.”

During the overhaul of the nutrition guidelines, government panels grew especially concerned over studies that showed Americans were misinterpreting or ignoring previous government nutrition information, eating two or three more servings of refined grains each day than the 2000 guidelines recommended. At the same time, those studied weren’t getting enough whole grains, which nutritionists say contain vitamins, nutrients and fiber not found in processed grains. Whole grain products also take longer for the body to process, making people feel satiated longer—believed to be an important factor in reducing caloric intake.

As a result, the 2005 guidelines push for the use of whole grain products over those made with bleached or white flours. And it’s not just the type of grains that have changed, it’s also the quantity. The USDA slashed the total number of servings of breads and other starches it recommends by a third. A healthy diet now should contain just three or more ounces of whole grains daily. That’s down from the 2000 recommendation of six to 11 servings. For the average American, that means eating just three slices of bread each day, compared to the old advice, which recommended having between six and 11.

Even with these changes, researchers are still alarmed by the lack of fruits and vegetables included in most diets. In 2000, Americans ate far less than the daily recommended servings of produce. And when they did, half of all vegetable servings came from five sources: iceberg lettuce, frozen potatoes, fresh potatoes, potato chips and canned tomatoes—vegetables that many people call “fast food” vegetables. New recommendations from the government now introduce the concept of vegetable “subgroups,” categorized as dark green, orange, legumes, starchy vegetables, and others—an attempt to cut down on the use of potatoes as the primary source of vegetable servings. The new guidelines suggest foods like spinach and squash.

While some health advocates hailed the new guidelines as a dramatic policy shift, others argue they still don’t go far enough to reduce America’s reliance on packaged, “convenience” foods containing refined flours and sugars. Dr. Mark Hyman, the editor of an alternative health journal and a whole foods advocate, says processed flours and refined sugars—especially high fructose corn syrup—are to blame for an increase in insulin resistance in the general population. He says these ingredients cause metabolic changes that make people feel hungry and cause over-eating.

While the new federal guidelines hint at a link between refined sugars and overeating they also suggest “more research is needed.”

“The current system is like putting the drug companies in charge of the Food and Drug Administration and letting them set drug policies and approve new drugs. It would be unthinkable,” Hyman writes in his 2005 book <em>Ultrametabolism</em>. “Yet that’s the way it is with our current food and food policy guidelines.”

Similar criticism leveled at the Department of Agriculture in the 1990s actually did lead the FDA, which is not involved in setting nutrition standards, to weigh in on the debate on packaged food. In 1999, the agency mandated uniform ingredient disclosures and created a standardized “Nutrition Facts” panel for food.

In 2006 the FDA expanded the requirements, forcing manufacturers to disclose the amount of “trans” fats in the products they produce—a move many companies initially fought.  (Trans fats, or trans fatty acids, are produced when manufacturers add hydrogen to cooking oils.  The process, which transforms liquid oils into solids at room temperature, makes food less costly to produce and helps it last longer on store shelves.)

The FDA recently noted that the cost savings to consumers generated by the use of hydrogenated oils comes with a price; research shows trans fats appear to increase the risk for coronary heart disease and weight gain.

Just last month the American Heart Association went even further than the FDA and Department of Agriculture have in shunning the use of trans fats. The Association called on food producers to eliminate their use and suggested consumers get less than one percent of daily calories, or about 2.5 grams, from trans fatty acids. That would mean eating the equivalent of only a fourth of the trans fats contained in a single large order of McDonalds French fries. The organization also expanded its nutrition guidelines for the first time since 2000. They now include additional information about whole foods and exercise.

Even though there remains widespread disagreement between government scientists and private industry about whether any of these changes will resonate with the public, all agree there needs to be some form of increased focus by Americans on eating fruits and vegetables and getting regular exercise.

The government is hopeful its policy changes, including the soon-to-be-released “More Matters” campaign, will begin contracting Middle America’s now-expanding mid-sections.

“The previous recommendations stressed a healthy dietary pattern; the new ones broaden that concept to include the importance of a healthy lifestyle pattern, “said Alice Lichtenstein, the chair of the American Heart Association’s Nutrition Committee, of her organization’s new standards. “The two have to go together—they should be inseparable.”

That advice, it turns out, isn’t news to one group across America. It’s the same thing mothers have been saying for years.