ASIAN FOOD PYRAMID OFFERS LESS-MEATY ALTERNATIVE.

Byline: Theresa Tamkins Medical Tribune News Service

For those who think the U.S Food Guide Pyramid has too many animal products and not enough vegetarian choices, researchers from Cornell and Harvard universities have an alternative.

Their Asian Diet Pyramid is patterned on the plant-based diets of China, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and India, countries long known to be relatively free of the heart disease, obesity and cancers that plague Americans.

The new pyramid recommends that the bulk of a person's food intake includes rice, noodles, bread, millet and corn. Fruits, vegetables, legumes and small amounts of vegetable oil also should be eaten each day, with the added daily option of fish, shellfish and dairy products.

Because they are not traditionally a part of Asian diets except for in India, dairy products eaten as part of the Asian pyramid should be low in fat and eaten in moderate amounts, according to researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust, a nonprofit educational group based in Cambridge, Mass.

Sweets, eggs and poultry should be eaten no more than once a week, and red meat consumption should be restricted to about once a month, according to the Asian pyramid.

When it comes to beverages, the pyramid recommends a daily intake of tea, sake, wine, beer or other alcoholic beverages. But alcohol should be consumed in moderation and with meals, and should be avoided "whenever consumption would put an individual or others at risk," the researchers said. Daily exercise also is recommended.

The Asian Diet Pyramid was presented late last year at the International Conference on the Diets of Asia, as an alternative to the 1992 Food Guide Pyramid developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The USDA pyramid recommends a daily diet of six to 11 servings of bread, cereal, rice or pasta, three to five servings of vegetables and two to four servings of fruit. It also calls for two to three servings of milk, yogurt or cheese per day, as well as two to three servings of meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs or nuts.

Fats, oils and sweets should be used sparingly, according to the USDA pyramid.

However, unless Americans make a more drastic switch from an animal-based diet to a plant-based diet, they "will not reduce their rate of cancers, cardiovascular disease and other chronic, degenerative diseases," said T. Colin Campbell, a professor of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell and director of the Cornell-China-Oxford Project on Nutrition, Health and Environment.

"Evidence suggests that eating even small amounts of animal-based foods is linked for many individuals to significantly higher rates of cancers and cardiovascular diseases."

Simply lowering fat in general and following the 1992 guidelines is unlikely to prevent disease, according to Campbell.

The Asian Pyramid is based on current research, but may be revised as researchers learn more about what constitutes the most healthful diet, he said.