Bye, bye pasta

Freshman Joanna Lambooy said she knows she doesn't eat like the average college student. But Lambooy also knows some things about nutrition that most of her classmates don't.\nAfter taking health classes for her exercise science major/pre-med major, Lambooy said she is more aware of the food she eats. Specifically, she has adjusted her diet to match the advice of the United States Department of Agriculture Food Guide Pyramid.\n"Yes, I am a nerd and I carry around carrots and sliced veggies, as well as trying to get two to three servings of fruits," Lambooy said. \nLambooy learned a lesson that most Americans seem to either ignore or not understand: Healthy eating matters.\nAs more and more discussion is devoted to eating right, diets, the food pyramid and consumption rates, more and more people appear to be falling through the cracks into a growing majority: overweight adults.\nRecent findings from the Center for Disease Control show 64 percent of Americans age 20 and older are overweight. Now the mythical "Freshman 15" seems to affect not just pizza-toting college students, but more than 127 million adults in the nation. \nThe question now weighing on the country is: How did we get to this point? \nWith the growth of the weight-loss industry and a continual focus on the slim bodies of Calista Flockhart, Jennifer Aniston and Christina Aguilera, Americans are asking: Just what is the right way to eat?\nThe crumbling pyramid\nBlame for America's massive weight gain is falling heavily on the USDA's pyramid, which was published in 1992 to give people an outline of what to eat to maintain a healthy diet. Dieticians now criticize the pyramid because it doesn't tell people what to specifically eat, but instead lumps food together into vague categories.\n"USDA is simple," IU nutrition science professor Nathan Shier said. "The one problem with dietary guidelines is that it gets too complicated for the public, so people say, 'Oh forget it.' It's written for the masses, for all education levels. It's made for people who need something simple. Therefore, it isn't as in-depth as it should be."\nIn the past few years, many dieticians have revamped the pyramid and published their own dietary guidelines, most notably "The Healthy Eating Pyramid" by Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at Harvard University's School of Public Health. Willett's book, "Eat Drink and Be Healthy," was published in 2001.\nWillett's pyramid controversially changes the original pyramid, including moving high calorie plant oils from the tip of the pyramid to the base. \nHis pyramid also shifts rice and pasta from the base of the USDA's pyramid to the highly restrictive tip. While the Willett pyramid has received significant media attention, it also has generated criticism from other dieticians, including Shier.\n"It's totally ridiculous," Shier said. "The main reason it doesn't work is because of the plant oils. Essential fatty acids are critically important, but you can get those from other less caloric sources." \nShier said Willett's pyramid is giving too much credit to vegetable oils and not enough to rice and pasta. Shier has developed his own pyramid based on a modified form of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid. \nThe Mediterranean Pyramid was officially released in 1994 by Harvard University's School of Public Health and Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust, a non-profit educational organization and was based on the dietary traditions of Crete, Greece and southern Italy around 1960.\nShier contends the base of the pyramid can still contain breads and pasta as long as they are whole grains. According to the most recent findings of the World Health Organization, the body gets the majority of its energy from carbohydrates found in breads, rice and pasta.\nGrains simply are a better carbohydrate for the body because they don't cause the body's blood sugar to rise as quickly as other carbohydrates. Grains are also prominent in Willett's pyramid, as well as in the food guidelines for other countries, such as Italy, China and England, which all promote more carbohydrates over protein. \nShier's pyramid encourages people to eat vegetable oils a few times a week and fish and poultry instead of red meat, but stresses them less compared to USDA's recommendations. \nAs for sweets, Shier said he sees no need to even keep them in the pyramid because the body does not benefit from them. Other prominent features of Shier's pyramid are a total of nine or more daily servings of fruits, dry beans, nuts and vegetables. \n"If one goes to a roughage and fiber diet, one will eat less food," Shier said. "Combined with exercise that could do a lot to stem the tide of obesity."\nMore than conquering\nthe pyramid\nThe American Dietetic Association promotes not only awareness of healthy food choices, but also specific guidelines for food serving sizes. In the fast-paced world of super sizes and extra-value meals, a recent survey by the ADA shows that people's knowledge about healthy serving sizes is skewed. \nFewer than half of the respondents accurately estimated the recommended serving sizes of cooked pasta, lean meat and vegetables. Cheese was the only food that was underestimated for serving size by most respondents. The survey, "Nutrition and You: Trends 2002," involved a sampling of 700 Americans.\nAlong with eating proper amounts of food, an active lifestyle is advised. A noted feature of both Willett's and Shier's pyramids is that following the dietary guidelines isn't enough. \nWillett's pyramid incorporates daily exercise into its base, and Shier stressed the need to maintain an active lifestyle.\n"The way I look at it there are two factors aside from genetics that are responsible for obesity," Shier said. "Consuming too much food and under-activity are the main problems. To address that is to try to get people to make a behavior change. I park far away and make myself walk, and I never ever take an elevator. You just have to maintain a level of activity."\nHealthy eating at school\nWhile following the food pyramid guidelines in the midst of a crazy life might not be easy, battling it in cafeterias and dorm food courts might be even more difficult. With one in four children obese, according to the Center for Disease Control, students enrolling in college might already have the odds against them. But that's exactly where Robin Lemieux comes in. \nLemieux is a registered dietician who plans meals for the traditional dining-style halls Read Dining Hall and Edmondson Dining Hall at Collins Living Learning Center. She also provides input on food items served in the fast-food-style eateries of Wright Food Court and Gresham Food Court at Foster. In addition, Lemieux works with students on a case-by-case basis to help them build diets that suit their needs. \n"If a student comes to me and says, 'Help me, I'm a vegetarian,' I can help them out," Lemieux said. "Many times the healthiest option isn't as obvious as you'd think. A lot of students have food allergies. I work at helping students get the food they need into their diets."\nThe Division of Residential Programs and Services also published three guides at the beginning of last fall semester to explain to students how to eat healthy while on-the-go at Wright Food Court and Gresham Food Court. The guides for Wright and Gresham include a seven-day meal plan for both food courts.\nFor some students, it's just a matter of paying more attention to what food they're eating. Freshman Sara Chestovich and her friends wanted to avoid gaining weight during their first year at IU while still staying healthy. So two months ago they began paying much closer attention to their diets.\n"I try to get enough protein and not too many carbohydrates," Chestovich said. "I try to get enough fruits and vegetables. I try to keep it a healthy mix."\nWhether following the USDA's pyramid or any of science's newest findings, dieticians say Americans need to pay attention to their eating habits. The overwhelming consensus is that people should be aware of the foods they are eating and the lifestyle choices they are making.\n"Throw the diet books away, simplify your life and make a lifetime change in your attitude towards food," Shier said.