State Puts Nutritional Data Into a Tasty Guide

State health officials on Wednesday released a “daily food guide” aimed at reforming corrupt eating habits--a step prompted by new evidence that Californians are defying the popular stereotype by eating too much fat and too little of everything else.

The guide is intended to serve as a dietary compass in homes, schools, hospitals and other institutions. By persuading consumers to adopt the guide, health officials hope to compel markets to begin stocking and promoting a more wholesome inventory.

“We’d like to put an end to the diet-of-the-week, food-of-the-month approach that has characterized the last several years,” said Dr. Kenneth Kizer, state health director. He said the guide’s aim is “to make reason out of nutritional information chaos.”

Kizer’s initiative, which he described as unprecedented in other states, comes one week after the state declared war on the tobacco industry with an anti-smoking advertising campaign based on the premise that smokers are being duped by cigarette companies.

Kizer said the nutrition initiative arose out of a recognition that Californians “are not eating enough of the right stuff and are eating too much of the wrong stuff,” and out of his own conviction that consumers are drowning in a swelling tide of conflicting dietary advice.

“I wanted some basic nutrition guidelines that Joe Six-Pack out there can understand and remember,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “You cannot expect the ordinary person, and even the trained professional, to remember all this nutrient stuff.”

A statewide survey conducted by the Department of Health Services last summer found that two out of three Californians said they were no longer able to plot an informed course through all the conflicting dietary information available, Kizer said.

Another study, now being completed by Kizer’s department, shows that two-thirds of all Californians eat just half the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables. More than half eat no whole-grain products and consume no milk or dairy products on any given day.

Diet is believed to be one of the most important factors influencing a person’s health. Each year, about 150,000 Californians die of diseases directly or indirectly related to diet, such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

The state’s daily food guide, to be printed in a variety of formats from glossy brochures to a manual for professionals, synthesizes in lay language a set of basic principles of good nutrition that have emerged over the last decade.

Put simply, the guide recommends five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, four servings of whole grains, three servings of low-fat or nonfat dairy products, two servings of low-fat meat or other protein-rich foods, and one serving of dried beans or legumes.

A serving is defined as half a cup of fruit or vegetables, or one average-size piece of fruit.

It also includes advice for people with special nutritional needs, such as pregnant and breast-feeding women, infants and children, adolescents and older adults. And it explains what forms of fats and oils are preferable and how to select lower-fat protein foods.

Some schools are already abiding by the guidelines, according to Bill Honig, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, who joined Kizer in announcing the campaign at a press conference in the auditorium of an elementary school in Montebello.

Other schools will be expected to begin following the plan voluntarily. In the meantime, Honig said, the Legislature is considering a bill that would require schools to prepare a “nutritional budget” proving that they are meeting the guidelines.

Kizer said members of the public can write to the state Department of Health Services in Sacramento for a copy of the food guide. Some grocery stores may also offer it. The state also hopes to set up a toll-free telephone number that consumers can call for information.