Comments on the Food Guidance System
I haven't been into the weeds yet with the new Food Guidance System (note the changes, no pyramid and now it's a system). However, Sally Squires, who is THE nutrition writer for the Washington Post, had a half page (with pictures) article today, lot's of quotes, so here it is "in their own words". full story
"The fact that almost all the information is on the Web is a lost opportunity, because only the very most motivated people will go to the Web and dig into this information more deeply," said Walter Willett, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
"People said, 'The old pyramid was nice, but it doesn't fit me,' " said Eric Hentges, executive director of the USDA Center of Nutrition Policy and Promotion. The new interactive tools, Hentges said, allow users to build personalized pyramids that take into account their age, sex and level of physical activity.
The new dietary guidelines are the best ever," said Margo G. Wootan, nutrition policy director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group. "They're based on the latest science and they provide very strong advice, but it seems like the USDA dodged the difficult political advice once again and didn't clearly communicate what to eat less of. Given that obesity is the biggest health problem facing the country, that is what is most needed to be communicated."
Others, including Alison Kretser, senior director of scientific and nutrition policy for the Grocery Manufacturers of America, said the new pyramid opens the door to more possibilities for food companies and consumers. "We now have a system," Kretser said. "Now it's our turn to promote and communicate it."
I think the challenges for social marketeers are going to be translating what seems to be a pretty complex "system" into something that fits into people's lives, instead of people having to execute all of these new behaviors (beginning with "start your computers"). I also don't understand the "benefits" for getting ienrolled and keeping an on-line diary of food and activity at the interactive web site (MyPyramid.gov), but that's one set of "weeds" to work through. Though the science is strong for the guidelines, I worry about the new information in JAMA today that questions "what is fat?" link Will this new information that you can weigh more than we use to think and still be healthy (or at least not die prematurely) actually decrease motivation to eat differently and move more? Then when someone like Walt Willett reacts somewhat negatively (though who knows what else he said that she did not print), will some (very influential) segments of the professional community actually undermine building this brand. Also, as I forecasted yesterday, transforming this site into low tech, and inexpensive, products will clearly need to be a next step - though I'm fairly sure (but don't assume) that this is already being addressed. Finally, communications about this "system" are going to require not only the usual reach, frequency, continuity, etc coming through multiple channels but, and this is just my hunch, it may be quite difficult to convince a large proportion of people that this isn't just the Federal government's answer to other diets on the market (does the competition become South Beach Diet, Atkins, and others). And I would bet that the response from these people will be much like it is to all the others.
7:34:26 PM 
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