Other pyramids have developed in more recent times. During the '60s, for example, people again thought that pyramids had mystical powers so they slept under them, had three-sided objects all over their desks (to be dusted often), and generally grooved together about the energy to be gained by being near, or under, a pyramid. Some of the powers that were associated with pyramids include memory power, longevity, protection from evil spirits, and other good things. Well, I haven't tried it, but sometimes the nose knows...know what I mean?

Another type of pyramid is a type of marketing -- selling healthcare and other types of products. It uses a blend of hype and hope, and causes the wringing out of dollars and cents from willing, eager people who want it, or suddenly-need to buy it -- urgently. Recently, there was such a scam selling "colloidal minerals" under the auspices of "Dead Doctors Don't Lie." I wrote a Nutrition Power Piece on that one, and it generated more hate mail, or mail period, than I've ever received. By the way, where are the dead doctors now? I haven't received a tape in over a year, so my cassette collection stands at a meager 56 with no more solicitations coming in. I wonder why? Read on ---

I'll bet good money that the consumers that got sucked in by that pyramid aren't making all that much money, or enjoying that much better health, and the reason is that colloidal minerals, no matter how bad you can make them taste, simply don't add up to the potential for perfect health promised by the live, charismatic-sounding "doctor" on the tape. Please, don't send me more hate mail. Or tapes either. If you have one, or if you're a Dead Doctor Marketeer, I've heard from your friends already, and I haven't changed my position about it one little bit. And nothing can change my mind. It's a rip-off, and I can prove it.

But I would like to add a new note to what I've already published. According to "The Dead Doctors" live "doctor" a deficiency of the mineral selenium is at the root of nearly all heart-related deaths, and just a few daily sips of the colloidal minerals would have spared all these heart patients their demise. But there is one little thing. Dr. Will Taylor, one of our premier selenium and HIV researchers, wrote to me saying that colloidal selenium doesn't even get absorbed at all ! Period. He's really smart, and I believe him. [And, for the live dead doctors, I do recommend selenium supplements, that arewell-absorbed, at levels from 200-800 micrograms (mcg) per day, specifically for HIV/AIDS patients.]

So, Nutrition Power took a position against pyramid marketing programs, otherwise known as multi-level-marketing (MLM), for just about all goods and services. If you receive an unrequested tape in the mail telling you that you're sick because you don't do what the tape says you should do, be warned -- they want your money, and they make it really really easy to believe that if you give it to them, your good health will greatly improve. And they cannot prove it. Do some good research on your own; you'll save a lot of money when you find that the tapes often tell lies. Apologies to those who may be telling the truth; they are rare indeed!

The bottom tier takes up the hugest amount of cubic space; eat a lot from that group. Starches include all ground-based plants except fruits and vegetables. So, things like bread, crackers, cereals, grains like rice, oats, wheat and barley, are among this huge food group. These are, in general, foods that originate from the ground, and eating priorities can be remembered easily if we just think about an ever-wise dictum of priorities; eat from the ground-up. This ground group comes first for better personal health and less destructive to our global ecology; and is, in general the most Financially Friendly group to include as the major portion of everyone's better diet. We're supposed to eat a minimum of 6-11 servings from the Starch Section every day. A serving from this group is the equivalent of a slice of bread, about 80 calories, and up to 3 grams of protein. Cereals, crackers and other grains are mostly labeled with Food Facts information, so you can see for yourself what amount of protein they offer. Also, these can be surprisingly high in fat. For example, wheat germ gets about a third of it's calories from fat, but is still one of the best whole grain foods to eat. Watch for fat content in the starch-type foods you buy; knowledge is power. However, we must avoid wheat germ and other insoluble fiber-type foods if diarrhea is a concern; it will usually make the runs much runnier.

The second row up from the bottom is comprised of vegetables and fruits. It's also a ground(earth)-based row, and includes the rest of our vast plant kingdom. From the left, we start with vegetables. Later on this year, when I write an HIV Nutrition Power Perspective on Phytochemicals, I'll be urging readers to eat a lot of vegetables, especially those that are colorful. Pytochemicals are ingredients in plants that offer medicinal value, and the kings of these foods are members of the carotenoid family. While beta-carotene is the most famous member, there are about 500 other carotenoids, and they also contain color -- carotenoids are pigments! Eating a lot of color promotes good health. Vegetables are mostly high in fiber too. And insoluble fibers from vegetables can, as mentioned be a trouble-maker if you have diarrhea, so you may need to puree your veggies -- or buy them already pureed, as baby foods!> That way the fibers are broken down so as to avoid insoluble fiber-related diarrheal outbursts. So, even though you may not be a baby -- still, baby food may be your best source of puree-vegetable nourishment.

Another way to avoid vegetable-type fiber is to drink veggie juices. I haven't heard too many people raving about juicing as much now as I have in the past, but juicing can still bring you a good assortment of valuable veggie-power. The fiber is either removed, broken down, or both, when you juice. But drinking only vegetable juices may also deprive you of some color -- look in the leftover pulp- bin of your juicer if you need proof me -- that color is a tell-tale sign that there's a lot of carotenoid power getting removed. Sometimes, I suggest recycling, like making banana-type bread, carrot cakes and other similar uses for leftover pulp; the high heat of baking will loosen some of the fiber making your kitchen a complete phyto-nutrient culinary center; if you aren't a chef, invite one over for dinner -- to make dinner, that is . . .

A serving size in the vegetable section of row-number-two is really easy : One cup raw or ½ cup cooked. Expect to get about 2 grams of protein with each vegetable serving. This, because veggies usually shrink when you cook them. And sometimes they don't - just use your own eyes and better judgment. This is one section to over-achieve on if there is one. Again, 3-5 servings from this section is the recommendation -- my recommendation is to eat as much as you can. And just for note: Lettuce is not a substantial food. With almost no calories, and fewer nutrients than I would like to see, lettuce is almost a non-food, and Nutrition Power doesn't count it as a food. So, all the lettuce-based salads you might want to impress me with won't impress me one little bit unless they are made with greener greens, like collard leaves and the like.

One "other-green" is spinach, and it's a no-no. Being sandy and hard to clean, spinach is not only a food-safety threat, gut it also carries a naturally-occurring toxic chemical called oxalic acid (oxalate). Oxalic acid will bind with valuable minerals like zinc, copper, magnesium, iron and calcium, making them nearly unabsorbable. And if the oxalate is absorbed, it might find its way to your kidneys where it can combine with calcium to form stones and uncomfortable things like that. Prevent oxalate; avoid spinach toxicity: Watch out for chard and rhubarb too.

The right-hand section of the second row up is our fruity portion, and we are advised to eat 2-3 servings. You can do all of this at breakfast (alone!) by simply drinking 6 oz. of orange juice and eating a banana. It's a shame, but most people don't even do that much. Study after study finds that most Americans do not even get 3 servings per day from both the fruit and vegetable sections of the second row combined! What a waste! A serving size for fruits is the average apple, orange, peach, pear, etc. Odd fruits like grapes and melons are measured by cups of cut-up fruit; one cup is a serving. Raisins and tiny fruit renderings go by the tablespoon -- two tablespoons is one serving. And that banana? Besides being Americans' single favorite fruit -- it counts for two servings ! By the way, don't eat brown bananas; they have oxidized -- a synonym for rot and decay. Do you want to eat rotten fruit? Please say no; eating decayed food isn't good for you. The fruit section donates almost no protein to our diets, but that's not to say we should avoid fruit, it's just a fruit fact.

The two bottom tiers, starches, vegetables and fruits, combine individually and collectively to become the complex carbohydrates everyone wants to eat more of. The only other complex carbohydrates in the Pyramid are the legumes (beans, peas, peanuts & lentils) in the "Meat Alternate" section of the "Meat" portion of the Protein Row, the next tier up.

Before navigating the ins and outs of protein, allow me to voice a problem I have with the recommended servings from this tier. In a word, excess. But ironically, not for Positive People. For it's well known, or should be, that Positives needs more protein than Negatives. So my cautionary note is really for all the Negatives out there who may be looking and listening in. You can get excess protein? Absolutely!

Although widely believed otherwise, the human body does not maintain large storage pools of protein. In fact, the body has to make a huge effort to eliminate excess proteins, and that's why excesses can be unhealthy. To the kidneys, of all things! (If you knew that you can skip this part and go straight to the Dairy section.) Here's how it works: Excess amino acids (the building blocks of protein) are normally excreted via our kidneys, in the form of urea, protein's waste product. What happens is that the amino acids get sent to the liver which, knowing that these amino acids are, indeed excesses, pulls them apart. The part of the amino acid that carries nitrogen (the functional protein part) is pulled off of the molecule. The non-nitrogenous part is either used for energy, or stored as fat. The nitrogen part forms the waste product, urea, and sends it to the kidneys. If you were a lab-bench scientist, and you wanted to have some urea to tinker with, you would order some from your chemical catalogs. What they would send you looks and feels like powdered sugar. Sugar isn't what it is, it's just how it looks. And if you need to get rid of it through your kidneys, your body must dilute it -- kidneys only excrete liquids, as you have probably noticed.

For making the powdery urea into a fluid, inner stores of our body's fluid stores are pulled out, along with important minerals like calcium, iron, zinc, and other minerals, and mixed with the urea to make our urine. Then the kidneys can send them away. And every reader knows how that's done; urine is always a liquid, isn't it? Then to the plumbing. So urea goes to urine, along with valuable minerals, and all of this activity is an energy expense -- calories equal energy -- so you have to eat more food to bring in enough calories to support the body-function of depositing excess protein into the toilet -- that is where you pass urine, if you didn't already know. (We interrupt to advise you that there are more television sets than toilets in America. Just a little conversational non sequitur to impress your friends with.) And a lot of protein goes into those toilets, because in general, Americans tend to be protein over-achievers.

But if you're Positive, let me reiterate: You need more! HIV is known to be a protein-wasting condition, and the best way to deal with that is to consume more protein then your HIV-negative counterpart, over twice as much in most cases. And this may actually be in your diet already. Hopefully so. If not, may this article serve you well in designing your 1998 dietary practices. Things like planning ahead, bringing a lunch, carrying your own safe water, being a chef or becoming a cook--a good way to get some inexpensive, high quality protein into your diet.

Since nobody can tell you exactly how much protein you need, you'll just have to go with the common wisdom of a gram of protein per pound of body weight. Count your grams, and meet your protein goals every day. One of the reasons we advocate high-level water drinking is to make up for fluids lost in urea dilution. Far better to replace the water and take a mineral supplement than to have an insufficient protein intake. HIV demands that you get in a lot of protein, so drink your fluids and eat your protein. And hopefully, you'll live better, healthier and longer, and in that order.

So now that I've got that off my ample bosom, let's...

First, let's look at milk. Your first task in the dairy department is to find out whether you have any digestive or allergic problems with milk. In the digestive-difficulty department, there's a lactose-intolerance problem that often gets in the way. For those lucky enough to not be lactose intolerant, this is where exposure to the substance swells up the gut and makes gassy, watery and painful diarrhea happen. In science, this reaction occurs when the enzyme lactase which is supposed to digest lactose, the "sugar" in milk, is dither missing, or inadequate.

There are broad ranges of this not-uncommon reaction. Where one person's stomach does cartwheels just looking at a glass of milk, another can drink a half, but not a whole, glass of milk. Our ability to safely eat yogurt and cheese may range along that same scale -- a little may be OK, but a lot is not. The ability to handle lactose tends to differ vastly between sufferers, and anyway, aren't we all supposed to be individual anyway? Also, there's the no milk/yogurt OK group. For these people, since the lactose is almost completely removed to make yogurt, it's a bonus. Yogurt tastes really great, to me, along with a lot of other people.

And cheese: Tolerance to cheese, including cottage cheese, tends to follow the yogurt harbinger -- those who can eat yogurt, may be able to eat cheeses. And those who can't digest yogurt may have trouble with cheeses too.

But in any of these foods, the protein value is what we're looking at for this article, and all dairy members are good protein sources; often referred to as a "gold-standard" of protein quality. Our mission, on the left side, protein row, is to get 2-3 servings a day. For this, a glass of milk is considered to be one serving. Since fat isn't a huge issue on row-designation (until we're at the top row), we can count our servings with relative freedom from fat fear. The protein in a glass of milk, regular, 2%, 1%, or nonfat (skim), provides 8 grams of protein. A slice of cheese or a container of yogurt also provide up to 7 grams of protein. And a ½ cup serving of cottage cheese will provide at least 14 grams too. One final wisdom: There is no difference in the amount or quality of protein, or calcium, between various levels of fats found in dairy or meat foods. The difference is only in the taste and fat levels. That's all.

Allergies: Lactose intolerance is not an allergy; it's a reaction. Allergies are governed by histamine reactions like hives, blisters, asthmatic breathing difficulties and sinus sufferings. Gut-wrenching as it may be, the lactose intolerance reaction is just that; a reaction; you probably have none of the allergic requirements.

Often, however, people do display true allergies. One common sinus complaint is an allergy to dairy fat. Butter is now out, and milk is nonfat, but it can be drunk. Another allergy is to milk protein, and this can cause all of the allergy-requirements just listed, including headaches and other head pains. If you need a specific diagnosis, you must be your own experimental laboratory. Here's how:

First, do the lactose intolerance test. Avoid all milk and dairy-related foods for 10 days. This includes white sauces and other "dairy-ingredient" omissions. After 10 days, drink 16 ounces (2-cups) of nonfat (skim) milk. If you hate me from the bathroom, you are lactose intolerant. Stop here and try out yogurt and cheese; you don't necessarily have to give up all dairy just because one dairy item happens to be a problem. If you can handle that tiny lactose fraction, you're in luck! Calcium luck; read on --

If you still have dairy problems, try the fat test. Add "regular" milk to your post-10 day "fast." Eat some cheese. Eat some yogurt. Try cream cheese, cottage cheese, or sour cream. If you get sinus problems, headaches, etc., it's probably the fat that's doing you in. Decide how much you're willing to suffer; often a simple aspirin may help. Aspirin isn't bad for you; but Tylenol is. Tylenol reduces levels of glutathione, our major antioxidant pathway -- don't lose it to the Tylenol myth.

If you still have dairy problems, try the dairy-protein test. Do that 10-day dairy "fast" again, and then eat some nonfat yogurt, milk, cottage cheese, and nonfat cheeses. These items give you dairy protein without fat. If this test fails, and if you flunked the fat and lactose tests, then dairy is not for you, now. At some later time, you may want to re-test yourself. Because milk digestive difficulties often come and go -- maybe yours will go -- and if you're willing to test out a few times a year, you may be able to do dairy after all. In the interim, however, it pains me to say this, but you'll have to discontinue dairy and go to a milk substitute. It's a last ditch effort, but nonfat Coffeemate or nonfat Mocha Mix (they make ice cream too) should suffice for morning cereal and/or power shakes.

About Calcium: Dairy is by far our most generous calcium donor group, and you have a requirement of 800 - 1,000 mg/day. If you don't meet this range, you could be losing bone mass due to a "steady-state" requirement of blood calcium levels. Since calcium is necessary for nerves to "talk to" muscles, and things like that, your blood must a certain calcium level, and that's where a non-calcium consumer can get into a major state of bone loss. Also, regarding that RDA -- it's my professional judgment that we should get at least 1500 mg/day of calcium. A lot of leading scientists agree with me on this, so it's a safe recommendation, and one for better heath indeed, since with HIV, you're a malabsorber anyway. Go for 1500 mg. Can't hurt, might help.

One little tidbit of important knowledge here is that cottage cheese has very little calcium, and is the only dairy offering with this deficit. Also you'll need vitamin D to enable high-level calcium absorption, which is vitamin D's primary job. Milk is fortified with it, and you make it with your skin exposed to the sun. But don't take separate vitamin D pills without talking to a good nutritionist -- it has a potential for overdose toxicity.

As to how to judge your supplement amount, Nutrition Power has a fool-proof method -- and it's easy. At bedtime, count your day's worth of dairy servings. Count each serving as 300 mg of calcium. Then add it all up, and take the difference between what you ate and what you need in a calcium supplement. I recommend a calcium/magnesium combination; they're both natural relaxants. Don't get zinc or iron in your "cal/mag" supplement; they'll inhibit calcium's absorptive potential. There's another bonus to calcium, and it's a sneaky, really good one. This combo will rid you forever from charley-horse type leg cramps. I've even had toe cramps, arch cramps and calf cramps -- all killed off inside an hour after a calcium dose. (Yes, I do forget mine sometimes -- did you think I was perfect?)

Moving to the right-hand side of the Pyramid's Protein Row we find the meat/meat alternate section. It also includes eggs, which we save for review later on. Beef is probably the best protein source for savvy HIV eaters. The reason is that it is packaged with important B-Complex vitamins, especially B-6, and lots of important minerals like iron and zinc and selenium. Remember when meat was a no-no because of its high fat and high cholesterol content? Well, that fact may still be true, but to a far lesser degree now than was the case in our somewhat distant past.

The past was when "Prime" beef was expensive and a status symbol; it was highly fat and well "marbled" -- the little sinews of white throughout the meat that confer flavor and calories. (Fats are all flavor enhancers; flavors tend to be fat-soluble.) And it was the most expensive meat to buy, and especially important if you're entertaining important people--you wanted to show off your best beef, and that was a fatty "Prime Piece." Current knowledge about fat and cholesterol wasn't knowledge at all in those olden times

.

Now, with 90s-level health information on fat and cholesterol, and modern technologies for rearranging how cattle can be raised, often they are free to roam ranches and frolic in the fields. Also, many of their diets have been changed. So now, our better beef buys have much less fat, almost no marbling, and can be safely eaten, in moderation, as a heart-healthy protein provider. I haven't even seen a prime meat offering for years. So, beef is a fine choice for healthful, nutrient-rich protein provision.

Great! Now we can truly have it all: A down-home meal of beef, baked potato (with gravy if you want), veggies, and a dinner roll. Just like in an old-style restaurant, only better tasting, healthier, and hugely cheaper. Then you can carry roast beef sandwiches to work, school, or doctor appointments, make 15-bean soup with beef and barley, create that fabulous au jous French roll sandwich, and maybe even make a beef casserole (if you got a big enough roast). And if I can think up all these things to do with beef, what a wonderful time you'll have deciding upon other delicious ways to serve your leftovers.

Other meat types also contain protein, though not necessarily combined with the impressive micronutrient numbers of beef, and they have about the same amount of protein as the beef you just read about. Poultry is an excellent protein source, and when cooked well for food safety, their meats can be a fine example of protein's better nature. For poultry, the dark meat has the best flavor, and has about three-times the amount of fat than do its white or light counterparts. The protein values do not change just because the meat is a different color. But some of the nutrients, like iron, zinc and vitamin B-6, are not as generously provided, compared to beef.

How many ways can there be to cook a chicken breast? Please send in your recipes; my own are troublesome and growing a bit tedious. One nice thing is that you can cook poultry with the skin, and if you remove the skin before eating, you'll get no more fat than you would if you hadn't cooked with skin. And the meat gets more flavorful and moist when cooked with skin. I like to stick seasonings, plus garlic and onion between the fat and skin, bake the bird, then de-skin it for a true taste titillation.

Another method is to boil the chicken breasts. Add spices and other flavor enhancements into the water--they'll get under the skin, as it were. And, by the way, you can wait to remove the skin until after the chicken is well cooked. Pour off the juices and refrigerate them, then cut up the chicken or turkey meat for soup sandwiches, or casseroles. After the juices have been in the refrigerator or freezer, the fat floats to the top for easy skimming into the cat food bowl. And you have fat-free broth for gravy or casserole juices, or for your soup.

As with beef and poultry, fish is a "complete protein," it can be fairly cheap, and requires very little culinary skill to prepare. Flavor tampering can range from the simple lemon or lime squeeze to extravagant butter herb sauces and exotic marinades. But if it's undercooked, and you eat it anyway, forget dessert -- go right to the hospital for an emergency antibiotic drip to deal with all the toxins you just ate -- the little germs and worms and things. Look carefully; the flesh must be real flaky -- no mush at all is allowable.

And here's a really fine fish find -- try shark ! It tastes a bit like swordfish, but much better, and a grill baste--with a simple lemon-butter sauce, turning it over a few times to renew the baste--will make you the talk of the fish circuit !

And a note of caution: A lot of people get sorta greenish if you tell them you're serving shark. Don't worry; tell them it's swordfish! I had a situation one time where my significant other loved shark until I told him it was really shark. Then he made me promise to never cook shark again. But I did anyway; and just told him it was swordfish (which can run about twice the price of shark). One night his boss-and-wife came over to dinner, and the boss proudly announced that I had just served him the finest swordfish he'd ever tasted, and he had some the night before that couldn't even compare to mine! Yep, it was shark. And the s/o never learned the truth. Not even now -- I'll never tell him, and he for-sure doesn't read this publication!

There's also another really neat health bonus with fish. Fish Fat! -- often called Omega-3 fats or fatty acids (EPA & DHA), which are truly healthful, found in tuna, salmon, and a variety of cold-water species.. Without diving (sorry, couldn't resist that pun) into too much scientific detail, let's just say that fish fats lead to better prostaglandins, which control cytokine blends in a beneficial way. And better cytokines is a really smart thing to shoot for. Yes, fish makes for a great healthfood.

Eggs are rather controversial. Some will point to the medical literature and state that no study has ever found egg-eating to be connected to high blood cholesterol. Others will worry about the fact that eggs do contain cholesterol, so we should avoid them just to be safe. I say use common sense; if you are HIV-Positive, you're a malabsorber, and cholesterol is widely known to be poorly absorbed. So you should malabsorb even more cholesterol than a Negative counterpart. Eggs do contain some saturated fat; from 1-2 grams out of their total fat content of 5-7 grams. The sat-fat content isn't all that bad, and there is some good protein, so egg eating isn't all that bad. But not to eat all day . . . Saturated fat is the kind of fat can be converted to cholesterol in your liver, or it might just go to make energy -- which is supposed to happen from eating protein-type foods. An egg will give you 5-7 grams of protein; an egg's worth of an egg substitute may provide up to 10 grams; read your labels and keep a running total for the day.

Ms. Food Safety steps in to caution you on one major thing about eggs; they can kill you if you eat them undercooked. The HIV yolk must be hard; salmonella is there and it can not only give you a good case of diarrhea, it can travel to your brain and infect your gray matter. Don't lose gray matter just to eat a runny egg; that's not very brilliant. If you're at a restaurant, send it back; your life may depend on it. Get what you ask for; a hard-cooked egg. Nothing can be runny, that's unsafe and it goes back to the cooker for further cooking.

Before going on to the Meat Alternate section, a word about...

Recently, a friend showed me a product he was using for complete protein protection -- the worst slimy beverage I've tasted since my last glass of motor oil. The amino acids were listed, and we compared his $24 bottle of slime with one egg. The one egg lost. But according to the bottle, the recommended dose was two teaspoons. When we evaluated the amino acids from two eggs, they won hands down! Over the years I've done this with many clients. I've analyzed powder products, liquid "drinks", and lots of other ways to waste money. Guess what? The eggs always win. They're always cheaper too, so the client can use all that old protein gunk money for a big night out on the town.

Also on the right side of the protein row, along with meats, are legumes-- beans, peas, peanuts and lentils. If diarrhea is a concern, beans may not be your best diet choice, and if you tend to be a bit gassy, you haven't chewed the outer skins of the beans as well as you should have. If you find out too late, you may want to try activated charcoal or some Beano, a digestive remedy for gassy foods. The Beano is to be used during your meal and the charcoal is for gas, if it starts happening after your meal. I remind you that charcoal may mess with absorption of some of the meds you may be taking, so use charcoal very carefully. It may be better to blow out farts than to miss the benefits of any cocktail you may be using.

The other legume, peanuts, from the shell, if roasted, are safe. If they're already de-shelled, they're OK too. So, along with being a great snack or peel 'n eat treat, they make butter from peanuts that can be a really good sandwich, and one that can be made far ahead of it's eating appointment. Actually, peanut butter sandwiches are my suitcase "staple" when I travel. I just carry a bag or two of English muffins or bagels, a jar of Laura Scudders natural peanut butter, and little jars of jams and jellies (that I've collected from coffee shops when they give me too many). That, with a nice diet soda from the hotel's vending machine, and a few cookies, or single-serve cans of fruits and puddings makes travel both healthy and inexpensive. Works well on a plane too.

For protein content measurement, legumes may lose you. But if you learn to "eyeball" the size of one cup (practice this at home), you can use about 1½ to 2 cups of legumes for a protein serving of meat's alternates. Combine them with a member of the highly noted complex carbohydrates (like my wheat-bread peanut butter sandwiches), and you have a "whole" or "complete" protein -- otherwise found in meats alone or milk alone.

Nuts, though rather widely considered to be high in protein, aren't impressively so. But peanuts offer fair protein value, and they are legumes like the beans, peas and lentils. Other nuts are valuable nutritionally, because of their high vitamin and mineral content, but sadly, they are also extremely high in fat -- so much so that they are considered to be a fat and thus, all but peanuts must reside at the tippy top of the pyramid -- along with the other stuff we are supposed to not eat much of.

Which brings us to our collectively favorite food group; grease and sugar. As mentioned, nuts -- healthy foods, to be sure -- have been placed at the top because they offer health in a pool of fat; a crunchy combo. Other fats at the top include avocados, olive oil, canola oil, and olives. These are the healthier fats. The unhealthy fats include bacon, sausage, butter, margarine, candy (of all kinds), and pastries. Yes, even that delicious bran muffin that looks natural, brown and healthy, probably has the fat of 3 McBurgers and a side of fries. And maybe some bran too, but since nobody's regulating that type of thing, the muffin could, indeed, be branless. Also, sadly, the blueberry, banana-nut, and other muffin types are also at the top.

So are most other desserts. Cookies, some cereals, many brands of crackers, and snack items. If you love it, it's probably at the top. If you don't love it, you're lucky; others have to live "unfulfilled favorites" lifestyles. Try to save top-resident foods for special occasions. Then, when that somewhat rare special occasion comes around, eat your outstanding favorite food with wild abandon.

Also, notice that there are no suggested servings for the top row. Apparently, the government doesn't think we should have any number to shoot for, or any limits to stay under. It's just "use sparingly." So, go light a lot, but do splurge splendidly -- from time to time !

If you had cereal with milk and a banana this morning, you may have achieved a protein score of 8 grams from milk, 1½ grams from the banana, and 3 grams from the cereal. Count breakfast at 12 grams. (Don't do fractions!) The snack you may eat between breakfast and lunch may have been a carton of yogurt and some crackers. Log in 8 grams for the yogurt and 2 more for the crackers -- 10 grams altogether. Doing lunch, did you have a tuna sandwich (add a few slices of tomato -- you'll love it !), some cracker/cheese mini-sandwiches, and some carrot sticks? You'll score in about 22 grams of protein from the tuna, about 4 from the sandwich bread, about 9 grams from the cheese, maybe 2 grams from the crackers, and 2 more from the carrot sticks. Your lunch total is then 39 grams. An afternoon snack may be an apple, and diet soda. That's zero grams.

But maybe you had a power shake for that afternoon snack. If you make your own shakes, let me offer some help. Start with a cup of nonfat milk. Add about ½ cup of Raspberry sorbet, ½ cup of nonfat dry milk, 2 eggs' worth of egg substitute, and maybe a banana. Another carton of yogurt would be a nice bonus here. And your protein total for that snack is 9 grams for the milk, 1 or 2 from the sorbet, 1 for the banana, 9 for the yogurt, and 22 for the NFDM, and 10 grams from the egg substitute. For a 53-gram power shake.

Now for dinner. Why not have some roast beef, potatoes, a cup of mixed veggies, a dinner roll, and Healthy Choice low-cal ice cream-type dessert with 4 Graham crackers. For the 5-oz meat portion, you'll get 40 protein grams, 1 from the dinner roll, about 3 from the potato, and 3 from ½ cup of frozen mixed veggies. That's a dinner total of 47, and with that ice cream and graham cracker dessert adding about 5 more, you net 52 grams.

Our "typical day" total is 113 protein grams without the 53-gram power shake. Probably about right for an average size Negative person. And if you add in the shake, that 166 grams is just about perfect for your average size Positive.

Did we make our Food Guide Pyramid requirements? Well, we got in more than 3 milk servings, with cereal, yogurt, and twice in our power shake. Did we fulfill our 6-11 serving starch requirement? Yes! We got in 1 or 2 from our breakfast cereal, 1 for the morning snack crackers, 2 from the sandwich, 4 from our dinner potato, 2 from the diner roll and 1 from our Graham cracker dessert portion. In total, our starches total out at 12 starch servings -- close enough! How did we do with vegetables? We should get 3-5 servings. We got 1 from our sandwich tomato (and we would not improve this by adding lettuce), 1 for our carrot stick snack, and 2 from our mixed veggies at dinner. We made it to 4, quite respectable. And for fruit? We got that too. Two servings from the morning banana, 1 for our afternoon apple, (perhaps a bit from any in your yogurt), about 2 from the sorbet in your power shake, and 2 more from the banana in your shake. Our obligation was 2-4 servings, and we got 7 when you include our power shake, 3 when you don't. And, naturally, we easily fulfilled our meat protein obligations with the 5-oz stead which gets us 2 servings. And we also had a taste from the top with our modest dessert.

We met our Pyramid Goals, and quite well, if I do say so myself. How about just looking it over for calories -- just a bit more information. Here's the score sheet!

~ 100 for cereal

~ 90 for milk

~ 105 for banana

~ 80 for yogurt

~ 100 for crackers

~ 100 for tuna

~ 30 for carrot sticks

~160 for bread

~25 for tomato

~80 for crackers

~120 for cheese

~60 for apple

~300 for roast

~120 for potato

~80 for dinner roll

~50 for mixed veggies

~100 for ice cream

~80 for Graham crackers

~90 for milk

~180 for NFDM

~80 for egg-sub

~105 for banana

~80 for yogurt

This simple exercise took a lot of work, but it proves you can put together a daily diet that's got good health, adequate protein, meets Pyramid Food Guide Portion Requirements, and does so with a good calorie total for the day.

Some milk is being treated with BST, a hormone-like growth factor. There's a lot of debate about this practice, but the ecological pointers seem to be indicating it's safe. Then there's the hormone and other growth factors in beef and poultry. Yes, they are there, and yes, you will eat them. But I do believe, though I haven't been funded with enough money prove it, that these substances lose their structure when heated well enough. And Nutrition Power has always maintained that Heat is Good, so cook thoroughly. As to the seafaring grunge from festering fish waters, yes, that'll get to the fish you buy too, but again, are they still harmful after cooking? I've not heard any recent reports on this, but if I do learn of something useful, I'll notify readers as I have in the past on food safety issues. For now, I suggest that you depend on the power of heat and the antioxidant properties from food and vitamin/mineral supplements. That's my own strategy, if it matters.

And while we're on the subject, there are a few other chemo-phobias: food preservatives. BHT and BHA, for example, are preservatives. They're often in snack foods like potato chips. And they're both antioxidants which, if you wanted to, you could purchase as a supplement (go to the store and look for yourself if you don't believe me). While I would not recommend taking supplements of BHT or BHA, I also wouldn't discourage eating a food because it had some in it. As for other additives, like carrageenan, locust bean gum, and guar gum -- these are all soluble fibers which may even help out a little if diarrhea's a problem. Other unfamiliar names may also be beneficial -- or they could be bad -- but let's step back here just a bit and look at the big picture.

Here we are, already taking handfuls of drugs that we know far from everything about, with research coming up with newer and better ones all the time. And these medications usually aren't fully studied either (i.e., compassionate use?). So you're still worried about a little BST or growth factor in cow chow? Or a little artificial color or flavor? Get it into perspective -- take some pyridoxal-5-phosphate* and call me in the morning!

So, I guess the pryamid is not impossible, is it? Not even that difficult really--okay, maybe a little calculator-intense sometimes. But it can be fun planning out your day. After that, forget hassling over what to eat and when to eat it, unless, of course, you have cocktail members with meal-spacing requirements. In that event, database your diets and pill schedules, and consult with a computer nerd to help you out. Then I suggest you just relax and enjoy how well 1998 is going for you. If you're happy, stay that way; if you're not happy, find someone who is and cozy up. That's what I do with my honeybunch! And there's no calorie restrictions on that dessert!

First do no harm. If any of this advice is, or seems to be, connected with adverse health consequences, contact your doctor, your nutritionist, or both.

*Pyridoxal-5-phosphate is Vitamin B-6.

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Nutrition Power is a Registered Trademark of Health and Nutrition Awareness. Copyright 1998 Jennifer Jensen, MS, MBA, RD.

All Rights Reserved.

Other versions of this article have appeared with permission in Being Alive Newsletter, Arts & Understanding Magazine,and other newsletters.