New Program to Direct Healthier Food Purchases

Learning how to eat according to the U.S. Food Guide Pyramid may soon get a little easier: Grocery manufacturers and food product makers today unveiled a new national campaign in stores and elsewhere to help consumers follow the government's healthy diet advice.

Called "Take A Peak," the program highlights food and beverages that meet the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for healthy eating and activity. Some 2,000 grocery stores in 17 states are slated to roll out the program throughout the upcoming year. Among the stores participating in the effort are Publix, Giant Eagle, Brookshire Grocery Company, Raley's and SuperValue.

Consumers will find aisle banners, kiosks and other displays in stores that will help point them to fare that is consistent with the 2005 U.S. Dietary Guidelines. For example, signs will remind them of how many servings of whole grains to eat daily (three) and then show them what foods equal a single serving. (A slice of whole grain bread.) Floor graphics will serve as additional signposts to healthier fare. This new effort comes in response to a widely perceived problem with the guidelines. While they were praised by nutrition and consumer groups, the re-designed Food Guide Pyramid -- now known as MyPyramid -- was criticized for being accessible largely on the Web. The new displays will put the government's message in front of shoppers as they roll their carts.Congress mandates revisions of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines every five years but provides little, if any, funding to publicize the any new advice that arises from those revisions. So the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which shares responsibility for the guidelines with the Department of Health and Human Services, has been seeking public-private partnerships to help promote the nutritional and physical activity messages in MyPyramid.

"I am very pleased to see the food industry taking up the challenge to help consumers make healthier choices," said U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, who today helped unveil the program, which is sponsored by the Grocery Manufacturers Association/Food Products Association, the Food Marking Institute and MatchPoint Marketing. "We've had a tremendous response to MyPyramid," Johanns said. "And I'm confident that as awareness increases, so will the health of Americans."

To see what effect the program could have on nutritional intake, the sponsors of Take A Peak commissioned four weeks' worth of sample menus aimed at helping women, age 31 to 50, gradually adjust their diets to meet the MyPyramid standards. The researchers found that a woman who followed the advice and menus could indeed eat according to the MyPyramid goals in about a month, said Betsy Hornick, a registered dietitian who planned the menus for the program.

While the new program is drawing praise, it has also raised some concerns that it might further bombard Americans with conflicting nutritional advice.

"It raises the question of inconsistent standards," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a consumer advocacy group. CSPI has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to establish consistent standards for healthy food and to develop a universal symbol that could be used to guide consumers to healthy choices.

"What's a consumer to do if one product has the 'Take a Peak' logo and right next to it is a product that gets the American Heart Association logo for being a healthy food?" Jacobson asked.