USDA to unveil child-friendly food pyramid

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A kids’ food pyramid featuring an Internet rocket game and school study guides will be unveiled by the U.S. Agriculture Department on Wednesday to help children make better eating choices.

The child-friendly version of the government’s iconic Food Guide Pyramid, the first one for kids since 1999, aims to combat U.S. Obesity by promoting more physical exercise and better diets. About two-thirds of American adults and almost 16 percent of children are overweight.

The old food pyramid is readily recognized by most Americans from breakfast cereal boxes, lunchroom posters and nutrition articles.

"(This is) designed for children to make it easier to access the nutrition and physical activity guidance,” said USDA spokeswoman Jean Daniel. “We need to get information in the hands of children and their teachers and their parents.”

In April, USDA redesigned its well-known Food Guide Pyramid. Unlike the old static, one-dimensional pyramid, the new version directed consumers to an Internet site to choose among 12 pyramids that calculate daily diet needs based on age, activity and gender.

The kids’ food pyramid will be similar to the adult one issued by the USDA earlier this year, but it will be more interactive and graphically appealing to children. Study guides also will be distributed to teachers to help promote the pyramid in the classroom.

The child-friendly version will include a Web-based spaceship game that aims to show children the correct amount of food consumption and physical activity they need.

“The game actually teaches children how to incorporate the recommendations” from the food pyramid, said Daniel.

The USDA declined to release more details on the pyramid until it was unveiled by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns on Wednesday at a Virginia elementary school.

Critics contend federal funding to promote nutrition among kids would be better spent on a major mass media campaign.

“The USDA is trying to do nutrition education on the cheap,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, of the new kids’ pyramid.

“What’s lacking is the political will. The administration doesn’t have the guts, and Congress wouldn’t let it even if it did criticize foods like french fries and soda pop,” he said.

The new food symbol released this year, MyPyramid, was the first change to the controversial icon developed in 1992.

It was criticized by some nutrition experts for being too general and failing to hold the industry more accountable for high-fat, high-calorie products and large portions of food. The new pyramid for adults also requires the use of a computer, which many poor Americans lack.

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