Muddling the message.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Raise your hand if you ever consulted the federal government's "food pyramid" for guidance about nutrition.

Thought so. Most citizens of Fast Food Nation would have better luck reeling off the ingredients of a Big Mac (two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun) than naming a single item listed on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's hoary nutrition chart (oatmeal? liverwurst?).

The nation's dietary dilemma is as obvious as the supersized passengers struggling to pry themselves out of airplane seats apparently designed in the days when adult men looked more like a young Ozzie Nelson than an old Orson Welles.

Even if few people pay direct attention to the chart itself, the periodic updates to the food pyramid could be an effective weapon in the waistline war, if the government did a better job of getting the word out. But the Agriculture Department's media budget apparently won't cover hiring the wizards who whip up those slick presidential campaign ads.

So the federal Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee labors in obscurity, issuing reports every five years that try to summarize the best data available on nutrition. The reports help determine the content of meals prepared under government auspices, such as school lunches and meals for the elderly, as well as forming the basis for the pyramid.

The updates also try to help the world's fattest people focus their attention - however briefly - on the foods they should be eating more of, and the stuff they'd be better off without. Of course, the dietary recommendations typically are as predictable as a 5-year-old's response to a bowl full of broccoli. Nevertheless, those recommendations are hugely significant to industry groups, and the dietary guidelines panel heard often-conflicting testimony last month from high-powered lobbyists representing the Sugar Association, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, U.S. Potato Board and a number of popular diet and weight-loss programs.

The Sugar Association proved the value of effective lobbying when it persuaded the committee to replace the straightforward admonition to "avoid too much sugar" with the Zen-like "choose carbohydrates wisely for good health." That's a great way to ensure that the food pyramid's guidance comes off as a confusing mish-mash of compromises. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson should direct the committee to restore the original language on sugar avoidance before final guidelines are released next year.

But the real issue is less about the language of the government's guidelines and more about why they have been so disastrously ineffective. Every year, more than 400,000 Americans die from illnesses related to poor diet and lack of exercise - about 16 percent of annual deaths in the country. Rates of diabetes and heart disease are skyrocketing, mostly due to the steady increase in obesity.

The predictable, low-key revision to the food pyramid and dietary guidelines is no match for the high-volume, market-savvy messages selling the junk science of fad diets and the mouth-watering mountains of junk food to a sedentary society.

Obesity is a public health problem every bit as serious as cancer. The government doesn't need more data; it needs more determination.

Want eye-catching graphics? Put a skull and crossbones over the part of the food pyramid that represents sugar and fat. Just to get people's attention.