Denmark’s Nutrition Council has concluded that there is no need to revise their traditional food pyramid based on high carbohydrate foods and low fat intake.
The new Council report studied recommendations of higher intake of vegetable oils and a reduction of carbohydrates with a high glycaemic index, but found that “there was no scientific basis to turn the existing food pyramid on its head, as (American nutritionist) Walter Willett suggests”. The Council ruled that it remained important to reduce saturated fat intake, to replace these with unsaturated vegetable fats, but not at the cost of excluding starchy foods. The study said that claims of detrimental effects of carbohydrates like potatoes, rice and pasta had no scientific foundation.
The Council report stated that there were no signs that the Danish reduction of potato intake over the past 50 years had any positive nutritional effects, but that the rising intake of sugar was the trend that clearly needed to be reduced.
Dr. Bjørn Richelsen, chairman of the Nutrition Council and the pyramid work group, concluded that, besides healthy eating habits, a strong focus on the importance of physical exercise was the most fundamental element of maintaining normal body weight and a sound lifestyle.
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