For Immediate Release:
March 25, 1999
For more information: 202/332-9110
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USDAs Food Guide Pyramid for Children Should Promote Healthful Food Choices, Not Heart Disease
Statement by Margo Wootan, D.Sc., Senior Scientist
USDAs food guide pyramid for children reinforces kids worst eating habits and may increase heart disease in the next generation. It shows once again that USDAs mission to promote the meat and dairy industries is incompatible with its responsibility to promote good nutrition.
The pyramid depicts four out of the five leading sources of saturated fat in kids diets. Those are milk, cheese, hamburgers, and ice cream according to USDAs own data. The pyramid may lead some parents to mistakenly believe that kids dont need to limit foods that clog arteries.
High intakes of saturated fat raise serum cholesterol levels in children, and children with elevated cholesterol levels are more likely to have high cholesterol levels as adults. Heart disease begins in childhood, decades before heart attacks occur. Fatty streaksan early stage of atherosclerosisdevelop in the arteries of children as young as three.
Despite its concerns, CSPI applauds USDA for encouraging kids to eat more whole grains, fruits and vegetables and less soda, candy, margarine and butter.
We need truly effective programs to promote healthy eating to children. For starters, USDA should mount national, mass-media campaigns to promote delicious, nutritious foods to kids. Congress should ban junk-food ads on childrens television and ban the sale of junk foods in schools until after the lunch period.
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