In recent decades Nutritional Epidemiology has generated a large amount of knowledge on the relationship between specific diseases and nutrients. This artic1e analyzes how such knowledge from Nutritional Epidemiology standardizes diet and absolutizes information, introducing concepts into society which are often inadequate, as in the case of the food pyramid developed in the United States and utilized in various countries, inc1uding Brazi1. Such facts result from an uncritical transposition of knowledge for use in Public Health. Furthermore, industrialization takes some of this knowledge and turns it into mass culture, thereby reorganizing eating habits, regardless of their role in health.
Epidemology; food pyramid; nutrition; ditary guidelines