First, let me say I am not an anti-milk! Not at all. I just love milk, I
drink it every day and I think it's good food (unless there is something
that spoils it, of course).

But... I can't understand why MyPyramid.gov shows "Milk" as one of the
essential food groups:
             Grains
             Vegetables
             Fruits
             Milk
             Meat & Beans
             Oils
             Discretionary Calories
             Physical Activity

Well, I love milk, as I said, but I admit one can live without milk & dairy
if they want or need to.

Well, yes... the same could be said for other single foods, but... some
groups look more "essential" than others, don't they?
"Meat & Beans" (including fish), for instance, is the wide group of protein
sources, and some protein we need somehow, don't we?

I don't understand this new MyPyramid stuff. It's not clear about what is
good or bad for you. It doesn't show, in a picture, what you should eat
more ore less. Those colored stripes look like abstract art, as someone
said, and the names of the food groups are ill picked, imho. If "Milk" is
essential, why not "Fish"?  Why are good olive oil and not-so-good
margarine together in the "Oils" group? Why do they say "Grains" rather
than "Whole Grains".
And where is the "No, thanks!" to pops, candies and added sugar? If it's
somewhere in MyPyramid, it's well hidden!

And, I wonder, why didn't USDA use the Harvard Healthy Eating Pyramid
instead?
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramids.html

Apart from some difference in content, Harvard Pyramyd makes *clear* the
do's and dont's about food: YES to whole grains and olive oil, for
instance, Vegetable *in abundance*, YES to legumes and nuts, NO to lots of
sweets, use *sparingly* butter and fatty red meat.... and so on...
Most of those ideas can be found in the new American Guide Lines 2005,
can't they?, but they are not clearly expressed in MyPyramyd symbols.
Why?