re: Obesity rates in the US have tripled in just one generation

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There is no evidence that it is or was a factor though.

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A landmark study published today calls into question the U.S. government's official dietary guidelines, enshrined in the food pyramid. For a decade, the government has advised Americans to stay away from fat and eat a diet based largely on carbohydrates. But as NPR's Richard Knox reports, a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows the pyramid and other official guidelines are most likely obsolete.

The Food Guide Pyramid is an American icon. At the base are breads, cereal and pasta -- up to 11 servings a day. Veggies and fruits are next, with two-to-five servings. As the pyramid narrows, it suggests eating fewer dairy products, eggs and meat servings. At the tip are fats and sweets -- to be used "sparingly." As sensible as it may sound, Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health says the food pyramid is "a license to overeat."

"I think the pyramid is so out of sync with scientific evidence that it almost has to be totally dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up," says Willett.

To Willett, the pyramid's problem is that it assumes that only fat calories can make people fat. "And the reality is, it's too many calories from whatever the source, whether they be from carbohydrates or from fat," Willett says.

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But she says the food pyramid and official guidelines alone are not to blame for American obesity.

"I think we're giving the pyramid too much credit, that people are actually following it to the letter and that's why we're getting fatter," she says. "I think there are a lot of reasons why we're getting fatter. I also think a whole industry was spawned on low-fat food, so people could consume fat-free brownies, fat-free ice cream, fat-free cookies, and that really has contributed to the increased caloric intake, the increased carbohydrates and the increase in obesity."

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