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The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is asking the federal government to remove the dairy requirement from the food pyramid because large numbers of minorities are lactose intolerant. PCRM is getting support for its efforts from Rev. Jesse Jackson, former surgeon general Jocelyn Elders, and the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust.
The food pyramid recommends two to three daily servings of dairy products. The PCRM recommendations claims are a bit bizarre. First, although minorities are disproportionately lactose intolerant, there are plenty of white folks that suffer from lactose intolerance as well. I personally know about half a dozen people who are not minorities and severely lactose intolerant – the kid next door vomits rather violently if he eats cheese. One of my family members cannot drink milk without getting sick and as a child I had similar, though milder, problems with dairy products (even today although I can tolerate it, I cannot stand milk). The food pyramid guidelines were never meant to be universally applicable to everyone.
Second, most people suffering from lactose intolerance generally have milder symptoms and often only intermittently; only a small percentage suffer from the severe symptoms PCRM is complaining about. But this doesn’t seem to phase PCRM’s |Neal Barnard| who told the Sacramento Bee, "Milk shouldn’t be required. It should be optional. It has health risks and takes a particular toll on certain people."
But that is also true of almost any food. I cannot drink orange juice without experiencing stomach discomfort. A friend of mine has to avoid sulfates or risk potentially fatal consequences. Other people can’t eat peanuts. The list goes on and on. If the goal is a food pyramid that takes into account any food that "takes a particular toll on certain people" it is going to have to be as big as the real pyramids in Egypt.
Besides as many dieticians point out, PCRM’s recommendations aren’t likely to be all that more appealing to people than dairy. Certainly people can get their recommended daily allowance of calcium from broccoli or beans or even sardines, but as UC Davis Medical Center dietitian Craig Petersen puts it, "very few people will consume enough vegetables to get the calcium they need."
Source:
Calling food pyramid biased, group fights dairy requirement. Stephanie McKinnon McDade, Sacramento Bee, March 17, 1999.