A shot has been fired across the bow of a decade-old standard. The USDA Food Pyramid is under attack and not only is the government re-evaluating its guide to a balanced diet in the wake of this warning shot, but the general public has taken a personal interest in the outcome of this battle.

Released in 1992, the USDA Food Pyramid was intended to be a stripped down, easily understood guide to a healthy diet. The problem — as a majority of health care officials agree on today — is the pyramid itself is too vague. Its most notable deficiency comes from combining all types of fats together and labeling them as unhealthy and, likewise, throwing a nice warm fuzzy blanket over all carbohydrates.

With obesity, diabetes and heart disease on rise in the United States, something needs to change quickly.

There have been a number of attempts to revamp the existing Food Pyramid. Proposals ranging from the California Cuisine Food Pyramid to the Soul Food Pyramid have tried and failed USDA approval.

Enter Walter Willett.

Willett, chairman of the department for nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, may very well be the savior of the masses. With a bold statement “It’s severely out of date” and the research to back it up, Willett has launched an all-out campaign to rebuild the pyramid. Willett and his colleagues at Harvard have just released their own version of the food pyramid, the Healthy Eating Pyramid, that has raised some eyebrows and offered a more comprehensive approach to the elusive balanced diet.

The most notable change to the pyramid lies in a new foundation. A foundation that has nothing to do with any particular food group, but the responsibility the public has in its own health. Daily exercise and weight control is the one thing all researchers agree on when it comes to a healthy life style. And by throwing this basic requirement back into the public’s lap, the initial blame for any diet-related health problem falls back to the individual, not the advice.

Past the foundation, Willett recommends the consumption of whole-grain foods at every meal, eating vegetables in abundance while stressing the difference between saturated fats and the friendly fats found in plant oils, nuts, fish and poultry. Carbohydrates come under scrutiny in the new pyramid too. Refined carbs such as white bread, white rice, pastas and even the potato have shot directly to the top of the new pyramid and are recommended to be used “sparingly.”

The USDA won’t officially make any changes to the existing pyramid until 2004, and until then the debates will rage on. Regardless of the decision made, the most important thing the public needs to realize is the symbols are only guidelines. To enjoy a long healthy life, the individual needs to take control of his or her well-being.

Editorial Board: Cavan Reagan, Amber Billings, Ayrel Clark, Charlie Weaver