By Wendy J. Meyeroff
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Today’s older Americans probably remember when nutrition guidelines were laid out in four equal squares, including one for dairy products and one for meat.

Then, in 1992, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed a new way to show that not all food substances should have equal nutritional weight: the Food Pyramid. It featured graduated rows of descending nutritional needs. Grains were at the Pyramid’s broad base, and the most miniscule amount of nutritional elements needed—fats—were at the pinnacle.

What is a serving?
“The greatest difficulty with the 1992 Pyramid was, it laid out its  recommendation of food consumption in  servings’ (e.g., have 6 to 11servings of grains daily). But what does a serving equal?” says Michael Franklin, R.D., dietitian at Renaissance Gardens at Cedar Crest in New Jersey.

The average consumer had no guidelines as to what constituted a serving. What if you compared two different food groups? Would a serving of spaghetti equal a serving of cauliflower?

In 2005, the USDA modified the Food Pyramid to include some specific recommendations for serving sizes. For example, it says both men and women over age 51 need at least three 1-ounce servings of whole grains daily; then it explains that one slice of bread, or half a cup of cooked rice, equals one ounce.

Nutrition experts at Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University recognized that an ever-growing senior population had different nutritional needs from the general population. So they developed a pyramid specifically for older adults. While it an be used by people age 50 and older, it’s geared more to those 70-plus.

Senior-specific guidelines
Tufts’ Food Pyramid  is narrower, indicating that most older adults need fewer calories daily. Whereas the general pyramid allows for 1,000 to 3,000 calories, this one ranges from 1,200 to 1,600.