The Pyramid is Crumbling

If the Associated Press has it right, it looks like the Food Guide Pyramid that we were forced to learn about in Junior High School Health class could soon be a thing of the past:

The government is looking at replacing the Food Guide Pyramid it uses to guide Americans' eating habits, hoping to find something that will motivate people better to turn to healthful diets.

While 80 percent of the nation recognizes the pyramid, two-thirds are overweight or obese, Agriculture Department officials said Monday as they asked for ideas.

"We seem to lack that last step: `How do I take it and make a behavior change?'" said Eric Hentges, director of the department's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, said in describing the shortcoming of the government's food pyramid.

An Associated Press-IPSOS poll found in May that 30 percent of Americans consider overeating the nation's top health problem, but just 12 percent said they were dieting.

Beyond the pyramid, the government makes a wealth of information available to people about how to eat right, including recommendations on how much to eat and how physical activity works off calories.

How about devising a food guide in the shape of a Treadmill and just be done with it, eh?