lem. The pyramid, by itself, did not di- 

 rectly answer the most fundamental ques- 

 tion it raised with its own jargon: What is a 

 "serving," and how many servings from 

 each group should be combined to make a 

 dish or a meal? The poor consumer, al- 

 ready bludgeoned by health statistics and 

 doctors into supposing that cheese kills, 

 was now confronted with an ostensible an- 

 swer to the life-or-death question of what 

 to eat, but the answer could not be under- 

 stood and did not ever speak to the prob- 

 lem of the well-meaning cook in a real-life 

 kitchen. Just imagine the quandary of 

 someone about to cook, say, spaghetti alia 

 carbonara, trying to calculate how many 

 servings of pasta or unsmoked bacon or 

 sparingly grated Parmesan were in the 

 total recipe and how many forkfuls equal- 

 ing how many "servings" were consumed 

 by each family member. And did the cook 

 have to ask each one at the table what he or 

 she had eaten at lunch so as to make the 

 amount of noodles on the plate tally with 

 that person's pyramidal goals for the day? 



Underlying all of this inevitable confu- 

 sion was the fundamental question, what 

 is a serving? 



This is not easy to find out. But if you 

 can find a USDA pubhcation of August 

 1992 called The Food Guide Pyramid, it is 

 clear enough, in its way. "What counts as a 

 serving?" it asks rhetorically. Well, it goes 

 on, a serving of bread is one shce (thin? 

 whole-wheat? egg chaUah? Don't ask). A 

 serving of ready-to-eat cereal is one 

 ounce, so get out your scale and don't be 

 surprised if the amount seems mingy. A 

 serving of raw, leafy vegetables is one cup 

 (compressed or not? Who knows?), but a 

 serving of fiaiit is only a half cup, while a 

 serving of fruit juice is three-quarters of a 

 cup, even though fruit juice is usually 

 more concentrated than whole iruit. 



Logic evaporates altogether in the dairy 

 tier. A serving of milk is the same as a 

 serving of yogurt: one cup, no matter what 

 the actual fat content of either. Utterly ab- 

 surd is the cheese-serving guideline: one 

 and one-half ounces of so-called natural 

 cheese but two ounces of processed cheese 

 (up with Velveeta, down with cheddar). 

 And in the high-protein tier, the USDA 

 wants you to believe that two to three 

 ounces of cooked lean meat, poultiy, or 

 fish, one cup of cooked dry beans, two 

 eggs, or four tablespoons of peanut butter 

 are fungible quantities — each is equiva- 

 lent to one serving. 



Perhaps I have convinced you that the 

 food guide pyramid is a snare and a delu- 

 sion. If so, I'm not particularly happy 



about it. In fact, the pyramid makes me 

 sad, in the way that every well-meant fail- 

 ure to do good lowers one's spirits. The 

 pyramid, to mix a metaphor, had its heart 

 in the right place. Its bottom line (bottom 

 tier?) was clear and valid: fat is bad; plant- 

 derived foods, especially those made from 

 grain, are good. 



Unfortunately, that message was lost in 

 the pseudogeometry and semantic tangle 



i Karen Karp's Banana Bread 



Thiee flours combine to give this perfect 

 tea cake its serious flavor. Karp is a 

 restaurant consultant in New York. She 

 recommends substituting six small fin- 

 ger bananas for the three regular ones 

 whenever possible. Remember that fin- 

 ger bananas must be very ripe, almost 

 mushy in the hand; otherwise they will 

 be fibrous and unappealing. 



8 tablespoons (1 stick) wisalted 



butter, at room temperature 

 'A cup sugar 



2 large eggs 



3 ripe bananas or 6 finger bananas 

 1 tablespoon milk 



1 cup flour 

 'A cup rye flour 

 'A cup whole-wheat flour 

 I teaspoon salt 

 1 teaspoon baking soda 

 1 teaspoon baking powder 

 Sesame seeds 



1 . Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease 

 a 9 X 5 X 3-inch loaf pan and set 

 aside. 



2. Use a whisk or a hand mixer to 

 cream tlie butter and sugar in a large 

 mixing bowl until light and fluffy. 

 Beat in die eggs one at a time and 

 continue beating until the color of the 

 mixture is pale yellow. 



3. In a small bowl, mash the bananas 

 with a fork. Then mix in the milk and 

 chopped nuts. 



4. In another bowl, mix togetlter flour, 

 salt, baking soda, and baking pow- 

 der. 



5. Add banana mixture to the butter- 

 sugar-egg mixture and stir until well 

 combined. Add dry ingredients from 

 step 4 and continue stirring until the 

 flour disappears. 



6. Pow the batter into the prepared loaf 

 pan. Smooth and level the top. Sprin- 

 kle with sesame seeds and bake for 

 an horn- or until a toothpick inserted 



^ in the center comes out clean. Set 

 I aside to cool on a rack for 1 5 min- 

 utes. Then slide a knife around the 

 edges of the banana bread to make 

 sure it doesn't stick to the pan. 



7. Place a platter over the open side of 



of tiers and groups and servings. But the 

 basic message is, in fact, the nutritional or- 

 thodoxy of our day. Most people now ac- 

 cept as common sense that densely caloric, 

 easily storable fats are undesirable for 

 people who typically live long enough in a 

 sedentary manner to acquire cardiovascu- 

 lar and other diseases associated with obe- 

 sity and the accumulation of cholesterol. 

 "Common sense" also dictates that grains 



the pan, invert, and unraold. Invert 

 the bread onto a rack (so the top — 

 the convex side that was exposed in 

 the oven — is up) and let cool com- 

 pletely before slicing. 



Yield: One loaf 



AU-Rye Banana Bread 



This is a somewhat less fiercely health- 

 ful version of a recipe printed on the Ar- 

 rowhead Mills rye flour bag. It has much 

 less molasses and uses real milk instead 

 of powdered. If you want the full-bore 

 molasses taste, simply eliminate the 

 sugar and use M cup molasses. The orig- 

 inal recipe also suggested honey as a 

 sweetener, another attractive option. 



4 tablespoons ('A stick) unsalted 



butter 

 'A cup sugar 



1 tablespoon molasses 

 3 eggs 



2 hatuiJias, mashed 

 1 teaspoon vanilla 

 % cup milk 



2'A cups rye flour 



1 teaspoon salt 



2 teaspoons baking powder 



1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Oil a 

 9 X 5 X 3-inch loaf pan and set aside. 



2. With a whisk or a hand mixer, cream 

 the butter, sugar, and molasses. Then 

 mix in the eggs, banana, vanilla, 

 milk, and 'A cup water. 



3. In another bowl, stir together the 

 flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir 

 this mixture into the banana mixture 

 until the flour disappears. 



4. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan 

 and bake for 1 hour- or until a tooth- 

 pick inserted into the center comes 

 out clean. Let cool for 15 minutes. 

 Then sMde a knife around the edges 

 of the banana bread to make sure it 

 doesn't stick to the pan. Place a plat- 

 ter over the open side of the pan, in- 

 vert, and unmold. Invert the bread 

 onto a rack (so the top — the convex 

 side that was exposed in the oven — ^is 

 up) and let cool completely before 

 slicing. 



Yield: One loaf 



74 Natural History 1/94 



