In his application to study consumer behavior at Stanford more than 20 years ago, Brian Wansink wrote that he wanted to learn how to make people eat more fruits and vegetables. Now, after being appointed executive director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion last month, Wansink Ph.D. ‘91 will have the chance to put what he learned at the Farm into practice.

As part of his new job, Wansink will chair a committee to revise the food pyramid and put together new dietary guidelines by 2010.

Wansink, who is the author of “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think,” said that he will also be in charge of a healthy eating index, which determines how much money is necessary to raise a child and has implications for everything from alimony to bankruptcy.

According to Wansink, one of the most notable differences between the new guidelines and the old ones is that, while older pyramids tended to focus on a one-size-fits-all dietary regimen, the new guidelines will “give people latitude but still tell them exactly how much latitude they have.”

Wansink said that he wanted to help people focus on making small changes in their lives that could lead to a healthier lifestyle.

“It’s not just saying to people,’you need to turn your whole life around,’” he said. “It’s about helping people make small changes in the right direction which eventually start piling up and making a real difference.”

As executive director, Wansink said that he also plans to emphasize the importance of physical exercise to a healthy lifestyle and to make sure that more people find out about the new guidelines.

“The MyPyramid.gov Web site has been highly successful so far with over four billion hits,” he said. “But I want to expand even more by focusing on partnerships with different information multipliers to get the message out and get businesses to work together with us in making people healthy in a win-win way, where they can make a profit while promoting healthy foods.”

Wansink said that as part of his campaign to emphasize the importance of physical exercise, he has been talking with video game groups about getting the food pyramid downloadable on the Nintendo Wii.

The new executive director also wants to take the food pyramid beyond domestic borders.

“We’ve been trying to work on the idea of exporting nutrition,” he said. “We’ve been talking to Dubai and Ukraine about applying the dietary guidelines in their own countries.”

Wansink credited his passion for food to another, more famous Stanford grad.

“He was in the first graduating class of [1895],” he said. “Another Iowan like myself, Herbert Hoover. He basically saved Western Europe after World War I because they were in tremendous starvation, and his food release programs and logistical overseeing of Western Europe really brought them out of the starvation crisis.

“I have in my office ration books from that time period to remind me of how grateful we need to be about food and that it’s a real critical thing we shouldn’t take for granted,” he added.

While at Stanford, Wansink said that he had a difficult time getting through his Ph.D. program and that his professors really helped him complete his doctoral education.

James Lattin, a marketing professor in the Graduate School of Business (GSB), recalled that Wansink’s educational interests were very broad.

“Most doctoral students are an inch wide and a mile deep,” Lattin said. “But I remember that Brian refused to be pigeonholed. He resisted that sort of laser-like focus throughout his entire career as a doctoral student, and I think that may be a risky thing to do, but Brian was just wired that way.”

GSB Prof. Seenu Srinivasan, who taught Wansink in a class called “Quantitative Research in Marketing,” recalled a student with a very uplifting personality.

“He’s a very persistent guy, but he’s also a person with an incredibly positive attitude,” Srinivasan said. “I’m totally delighted to hear of his appointment.”