Culinary consciousness

Healthier eating means making some revisions in how you use the food pyramid.

The Great Pyramid of Egypt, the only wonder of the ancient world still standing, has survived for thousands of years. The great pyramid of the USDA, on the other hand, is barely a decade old and it's already starting to crumble. The USDA's pyramid, of course, is the celebrated food pyramid, which graphically advises greater consumption of the foods at its base than of the foods at its top.

I've developed an interest in dietary pyramid schemes lately thanks to my doctor, one of those wiry types given to telling people to starve themselves to death so they can live a little longer. In addition to warning me to quit having intimate dinners for two unless there is another person present, he has questioned my idiosyncratic interpretation of the USDA guidelines, what I call the inverted pyramid diet. But though my doctor rightly rejects turning the food pyramid upside-down, he does agree that the structure is in need of remodeling.

When it first came out in 1992, the food pyramid was well intentioned enough, though there are critics who contend that it was compromised from the start through pressure from the big food processors and was misleadingly oversimplified for fear that a more complex version would be confusing.

Whatever the case, it now seems clear that the pyramid, though an inspired concept for boiling down the 30-plus pages of USDA dietary guidelines into an easy-to-read graphic form, is, at the very least, out of date. Indeed, those dietary guidelines have been revised (they're reviewed every five years), but the pyramid itself has not changed. Thus, it is now inconsistent with current guidelines and the latest scientific research.

The essential recommendations embodied in the pyramid are these: Minimize your consumption of fats and oils; favor foods rich in complex carbohydrates like bread, cereal, rice, and pasta; consume generous amounts of fruits and vegetables, including potatoes, along with several servings of dairy products; and eat at least two servings a day from the meat and beans group, which includes red meat, poultry, fish, nuts, legumes, and eggs.

While these recommendations are not entirely incorrect, they are, in the judgment of Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health, "fundamentally flawed." Moreover, they don't seem to be working. Americans are still the fattest people on the planet. Willett thinks that part of the problem can be traced to the pyramid.

Because bread, rice, pasta, bagels, crackers and other grain products are located at the bottom of the pyramid, many people mistakenly assume that it's all right to eat lots of these foods. Willett claims this misconception has created the great American feedlot. "Farmers have known for thousands of years that if you want to fatten up an animal, you put it in a pen so it can't run around and you feed it lots of grains," he says. "People are not too different."

Willett faults the pyramid for failing to distinguish between whole grains and refined carbohydrates. The former, he says, are beneficial, while the latter are not. They quickly increase your blood sugar level and, consequently, are linked to heart problems and diabetes. (They even can cause you to feel hungrier, thus encouraging overeating.) Potatoes do the same thing. In fact, says Willett, eating a boiled potato raises blood sugar levels higher than eating the same amount of calories from table sugar! Yet potatoes, essentially a starch, are classified with vegetables toward the bottom of the pyramid where consumption is endorsed.

This flaw in the pyramid can lead to erroneous conclusions, like the notion that a plain bagel with jam is a healthy thing to eat in the morning. Actually, according to Willett, you'd be better off with scrambled eggs cooked in canola oil, which brings up another problem with the pyramid. Just as it promotes the unsound notion that all carbs are good, it suggests the equally unsound corollary that all fats are bad by grouping them together at its tip. Yet, as Willett points out, there is plenty of scientific evidence that some fats -- the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated ones -- are good for you, as they actually help improve the ratio of LDL (bad) to HDL (good) cholesterol, thereby lowering the risk of heart disease.

Though Willett also criticizes the pyramid for failing to distinguish the health differences among red meat, poultry, fish, legumes, nuts and eggs and for encouraging over consumption of dairy products, it is likely the defects in the pyramid dealing with carbohydrates and fats which are primarily conducive to obesity and health problems in our society.

To get us back on the right track, Willett and his colleagues have designed their own pyramid, a modification of the USDA's. This so-called Healthy Eating Pyramid emphasizes whole grain foods, vegetable oils, fruits, and vegetables while de-emphasizing red meat, refined grains and dairy products. But be forewarned. Willett says the biggest problem with the typical American diet is still too many calories, regardless of their source. If you always supersize your portions, eventually you'll be super sized too and you'll be much less healthy. As John Kenneth Galbraith once noted, ours is the rare country where more people die of too much food than too little.

Turkey Osso Buco

This decidedly clever recipe adapted from Cary Neff's gorgeous new book "Conscious Cuisine" takes one of the most famous of all classic Italian dishes and substitutes turkey for the traditional veal. The result is a healthy dish with plenty of dietary pyramid power and all the flavor of the original.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon olive oil

4 turkey legs

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

2 cups diced yellow onions

2 cups diced celery

2 cups diced, peeled carrots

1 tablespoon minced garlic

3 cups white wine

2 cans (16-oz. each) diced tomatoes

1 can (6-oz.) tomato paste

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 teaspoon dried basil

8 cups defatted chicken stock

Directions:

Remove skin from turkey legs. Season with salt and pepper. Heat oil over medium-high heat and sear on all sides until browned, about 5 minutes. Remove from pan. Add onions, celery, carrots, and garlic to pan and sauté until onions are browned and vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Add wine, stirring to loosen browned bits from bottom of pan, and bring to a full boil. Boil five minutes or until wine is reduced to 1/4 of its original volume. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaves, oregano, marjoram, basil, and chicken stock. Return to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered until turkey is tender and is falling off the bone, about 3 hours. Serves 4.

Listen to A Harte Appetite Fridays at 8:49 a.m. Fridays and at 11:59 a.m. Saturdays on KRCU, 90.9 FM. Write A Harte Appetite, c/o the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semissourian.com.