Watch What You Eat

A new teaching tool redefines food guidelines -- and stirs up controversy

THE NEW FOOD GUIDE PYRAMID, ERECTED LAST week by the Agriculture Department, looks like a perfect update of the good old four-food-groups diagrams kids have been seeing in school cafeterias since the 1950s. The chart reorganizes edibles into five groups, graphically illustrating the latest nutritional correctness: bread and pasta are great for you, so eat lots; fruits and vegetables are good; meats, dairy products, beans and nuts are O.K.; and fats and sweets are trouble, not even a full-fledged group, and should be squeezed into the smallest possible corner of the diet.

It may seem like a modest revision, but that...

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