I’ve seen a number of things that made me go “Hmmmm?” lately. But this is one of the wierder ones that made me laugh.
I was doing a computer based training module at work. This particular module was on the Food Pyramid – specifically meat and dairy. Because beans are a good source of protein, they are included by the USDA as part of the Meat group as well as the vegetable group. One of the things that made me shake my head is the inclusion of falafel in the beans group. While falafel are made from garbanzo beans (a.k.a. chickpeas) or fava beans, personally I would not include them in the “bean” group when the rest because they are not in their “whole” state and garbanzo beans are listed. If you are going to include falafel then why not hummus too? Oh wait hummus probably has too fat to be “healthy” because it contains olive oil and Tahini (sesame seed paste). Well falafel are fried people and that isn’t exactly “healthy” either.
Also on the list is tofu, various vegetarian bean burgers, and tempeh (a fermented, cooked soybean cake) and texturized vegetable protein. Call me a bit of a food snob, but why are processed items being included list under “Dried beans and peas”? Also why aren’t these things included on the list under vegetables since you have them listed here? The USDA doesn’t collectively lump processed foods under the grains, they are instead called “refined grains”. Processed dairy is also split out into “Dairy based desserts”, “cheeses”, and “yogurt”. So why the change on Meat and Protein?
There’s a lot of things I don’t like about the food pyramid, but inconsistencies drives me nuts.
Facebook
Twitter