By Wendy Gammons

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new healthy eating guide – My Pyramid – comes at a time of great concern about the health of the nation, particularly rising obesity rates.

Obesity is a national health care problem that costs billions of dollars both in direct medical costs as well as indirect costs such as reduced productivity and sick days.

Currently, 60 percent of Americans are overweight or obese, based on the Body Mass Index, according to Thorpe Health Affairs. Medical bills for obese individuals accounted for 27 percent of the growth in overall health care spending from 1987 to 2001. Health care costs for obese persons were 37 percent higher in 2001 than for normal weight persons.

Obesity is a risk factor for a variety of chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, various cancers, gall bladder disease, sleep apnea, depression and low back pain.

The goal of the new food guide pyramid is to improve the nation’s health by helping individuals make healthier food choices. My Pyramid is part of an overall dietary guidance system that underscores the need for a more individualized approach to making lifestyle choices based on one’s age, gender, and activity level. We are reminded of the benefit of daily physical activity by the figure taking steps up the pyramid in the My Pyramid symbol.

The new pyramid highlights a new level of attention to unhealthy eating and exercise habits, and there is much that can be done by individuals, families, communities, schools, employers and government.

Municipal employers can consider the following actions:
• Establish an employee wellness program or take advantage of available programs such as Well Aware, the MIIA Health Benefits Trust program. Programs may include on-site weight loss programs, healthy cooking demonstrations, food shopping workshops, and fitness classes.
• Encourage participation in an employee wellness program. Promote the program throughout the work site.
• Support employees by allowing them to participate in wellness programs during the work day.
• Offer activities that focus on physical activity and healthy eating (such as walking programs, pedometer programs, cardio workouts, strength training workouts, workshops on topics such as using the new food guide pyramid, cooking demonstrations, grocery store shopping tours, and weight loss programs).
• Establish policies on healthy eating at meetings, workshops and conferences as well as for cafeteria vending machines for town and school employees.
• Establish partnerships/group discounts with community health clubs, YMCAs, and yoga and Pilates providers.
• Post healthy eating and exercise materials (such as the new food guide pyramid) on bulletin boards, bathroom walls and office doors.
• Send regular health-related e-mail messages to employees. There are several free e-newsletters, daily/weekly health tips and healthy recipes that can easily be e-mailed.
• Distribute healthy cookbooks and recipes.
• Showcase healthy eating and exercise books and resources regularly at town and school libraries.
• Make the following available to employees: walking routes near work; places to secure bikes; listings of community fitness/wellness resources (such as Weight Watchers, the YMCA, health clubs and adult education program providers).
• Provide material on health plan benefits such as coverage for nutrition counseling or obesity treatment and reimbursements for health club membership or Weight Watchers programs.

For more on the new healthy eating guide, visit www.MyPyramid.gov. Other useful Web sites include: www.cdc.gov; www.usda.gov; www.nhlbi.nih.gov; www.obesity.org; www.iotf.org; and www.healthypeople.gov.

Wendy Gammons is the MIIA wellness coordinator.