Diet for Optimum Health

The Four Food Groups

(According to the meat, dairy, fish and egg producers)

For many of us in Ireland, what little nutrition education we had consisted of the Four Food Groups. These are:

1. Meats
2. Dairy products
3. Fruits & Vegetables
4. Bread & Cereals

It is recommended that a balanced diet should include two servings from each of the Meat and Dairy Products groups and four servings from each of the Fruit & Vegetables and Bread & Cereals groups.

In Ireland, the Four Food Groups is the foundation of most diet planning in hospitals, in the army, in prisons, in government institutions, and in households across the country. Unfortunately, the Four Food Groups scheme does little to create good health in human beings.

It is not a reliable guide to health because the scheme was not established upon firm, scientifically-based principles of human nutrition, but rather, upon the economics and politics of meat and dairy production.

The Four Food Groups scheme was created by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1956 and was taken up by many countries around the world, including Ireland. Even in 1956, medical and nutritional studies had appeared in the scientific literature, indicating that meat and dairy products were associated with severe degenerative diseases, like atheroschlerosis. Other studies had revealed that people whose diets were based around starches, fruits, and vegetables, lived longer and healthier lives.

Nevertheless, the overriding goal of the USDA was (and is) to encourage the production of, and develop a strong and growing market for, agricultural products. So, the Four Food Groups scheme was created despite grave reservations from the medical and nutritional research community, but with the approval of the meat and dairy industries. As a result, one half of the food group choices presented to the American public as "nutritious" were the body parts or nursing secretions of animals.

The Irish Scene

The Irish public are also presented with the same dietary recommendations. There are several Irish state-sponsored bodies in existence today whose express remit is the promotion of meat and dairy product consumption.

Córas Beostoic agus Feola (the Irish Livestock and Meat Board), established by the Irish government in 1979, is responsible for developing, promoting and assisting exports of cattle and sheep, meat and meat products and encouraging the consumption of beef and lamb on the home market. Its activities include:

1. arranging educational programmes and seminars
2. conducting special reviews and studies
3. undertaking promotional and advertising campaigns
4. publishing and distributing reports, journals and magazines

The members of the Board are appointed by the Minister for Agriculture and Food and include nominated representatives of cattle and sheep producers whose only interest is to promote the sale of meat.

The National Dairy Council (NDC) was incorporated in 1964 and made responsible for promoting milk and Irish dairy products on the home market. Formerly a state-sponsored body, the Council is now financed by An Bórd Bainne (the Irish Dairy Board), the Dublin and Cork District Milk Boards and the National Dairies Association. Since 1978, it has received funding from the European Commission. The Council conducts promotional campaigns for milk, butter, cheese, yoghurt and cream. Apart from planning and implementing advertising campaigns, it conducts a wide range of sponsorships and educational programmes.

Through its Information Centre on Nutrition and Health, the Council promotes a wider knowledge and appreciation of the importance of "good" nutrition. The Centre's nutrition education programme is directed in two main areas - the medical profession and the public. Both groups are equally gullible because doctors receive about a half day's tuition in nutrition during their training. Unfortunately, the public and most doctors are likely to accept at face value the NDC's information on the nutritional value of dairy products.

Vegetarianism/Veganism in Ireland

Vegetarianism is not advocated by any state or semi-state sponsored body in the Republic of Ireland. Medical organisations adhere to the Four Food Groups scheme outlined above and advocate the 30% calories from fat school of heart disease "prevention". Of course, to advocate anything less than 30% calories from fat would be tantamount to prescribing a vegetarian diet!

Nutritionists in Ireland invariably find employment with food processing companies that use meat and dairy products as raw ingredients. Irish training in nutrition is firmly based on the Four Food Groups scheme and research is primarily funded by the meat and dairy industries.

The Vegetarian Society of Ireland (VSI) is the only organisation in the country available to Irish vegetarians. Its activities are concentrated in Dublin.

Unfortunately, vegetarianism itself, since it is usually of the lacto-ovo variety, has no scientific basis for its inclusion of dairy products and eggs in the light of the latest nutritional research (assuming that its adoption is an attempt to optimise health and prolong life). Even from an ethical standpoint, vegetarianism does not go far enough because there is complicity in the systematic cruelty to animals required to provide milk and eggs.

There is no organisation for vegans or pure vegetarians in Ireland.

The New Four Food Groups

(According to the latest nutritional research)

In 1991, the Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine, based in Washington D.C. in the United States, recommended the New Four Food Groups. They are:

1. fruits
2. grains
3. vegetables
4. legumes

The PCRM stated that basing our diet on the old four food groups not only does not ensure adequate nutrition, but that consumption of meat, fish, poultry and dairy products actually increases disease.

PCRM members who were instrumental in formulating the new food groups include Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and Director of the massive China Health Project. Collaborator Dr. Oliver Alabaster is Director of the Institute for Disease Prevention at the George Washington University.

The PCRM attacked the old, traditional four food groups on three major fronts:

• First, they said, "The old food groups fail to assure nutritional adequacy." The four food groups were established according to the understanding of nutritional needs in 1953. Since that time, the required daily allowances (RDA's) for protein, vitamins, minerals, etc. have been extensively revised and expanded. A 1978 study showed that only 9 of the 17 RDA's were met by the typical diet based on the old groups.
• The second problem is that "The old four food groups fail to adequately address the current dietary problems of our population. Specifically, the 1977-78 Nation-wide Food Consumption Survey indicates that Americans who eat diets based on the four food groups consume an excessive amount of fat." Studies show that dietary fat and associated consumption of excess protein is related to breast cancer, heart disease, obesity, kidney disease and osteoporosis, to name just a few.
• Third, stated the PCRM, "The old four food groups serve to misinform consumers about some aspects of nutrition. Two of the four food groups - meats and dairy products - are clearly not necessary for health and, in fact, may be detrimental to health... Populations with the lowest rates of heart disease, colon and breast cancer, and obesity consume very little meat and three servings of fruits each day."

The PCRM concluded that "The average adult can meet nutrient needs by consuming five servings or grains, three servings of legumes, three servings of vegetables and three servings of fruit each day."

Ensure that you include a good source of vitamin B12, such as fortified cereals and vitamin supplements.