The Government’s Food Pyramid Sucks

Could it Be Making People Fatter and Less Healthy?

Before I get to my great stuff about the government’s Food Pyramid, I want to give you some reading assignments. Knowledge is good. And here’s some vital knowledge that is great.

Don’t get huffy because it’s in the form of books.

‘The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat, and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet,’ by Nina Teicholz (‘TBFS,’ from now on). By the way, I think that title would get you kicked off Twitter these days.

This book will forever change the way you consider research and the government’s role as advocates of public health. Ms Teicholz explains why and how she wrote the book and how it took shape as she did her research. She does not have an agenda.

‘The Poor Misunderstood Calorie,’ by William Lagakos, Ph. D. The best non-diet, diet book ever written. I think it was like $3.95 for the Kindle version. This book will go a long way to help you learn how to take care of yourself, while helping to make sense of the nonsense that you encounter daily, about eating.

‘The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It,’ by Dr Malcolm Kendrick. Dr Kendrick - a real, bona fide, practicing doctor who actually treats patients, and also an active researcher - really isn’t on Twitter and has been removed from Wikipedia because he challenges the cholesterol hypothesis for heart disease, and has written extensively on the dangers of statins.

I recommend signing up for his newsletter at drmalcolmkendrick.org.

So, that was some pre-post digression, wasn’t it?!? Or is it a pre-gression?

Back to the Food Pyramid

There can be no better example of the disaster that ensues when government gets involved in anything - in this case how we eat - than the Food Pyramid, now also known as My Plate. I’m going to ignore My Plate because it’s basically the Food Pyramid, but dumber.

If a camel is a horse designed by a committee, at least that committee understood the basics of anatomy and animal locomotion. The committee that designed the Food Pyramid has little if any apparent knowledge of the nutrition research that’s been done over the past 50+ years or so, while apparently favoring one area of the food lobby over others. Apparently…

If you read ‘TBFS’ you will learn about all the data that has been ignored *cough lied about and hidden cough* since the 1940’s. Yes, the 1940’s.

The point of this post is to look closely at the Pyramid so you can see the ridiculousness. And while I will provide some background, I highly recommend you find out for yourself how we are being lied to by public health officials, that this isn’t a new thing, and how AGENDA trumps the public’s health.

The more you read about these different iterations, the more ridiculous it is to think of how any group of adults interested in helping improve people’s health and well-being could come up with such dreck. Then again, once you realize that this is an agenda-based endeavor, it all makes some kind of perverse sense.

There is so much horrendousness here, I have a hard time picking the place to start. And so I will muddle around a bit.

Firstly, whether we are talking about these guidelines or commercial diets, women are overwhelmingly the targets and, consequently, the victims.

Basing a diet on calories is a proven loser. And basing any nutritional program on a ‘2000 calorie diet,’ is like basing an investment program on a $50,000 yearly salary.

There is no real allowance for our individual, and drastic, physical differences. One size fits all!

Limiting fats and promoting ‘lean’ meats ignores research regarding health, and the ability for people to thrive, that has been around for more than 70 years. “Low-fat or fat-free dairy products.’ Geez, the 1980’s called and wants its bad diet info back.

When agenda trumps the public’s best interests…

You cannot outrun a bad diet. Remember this. I wish I could say it was my saying, but alas…

The inclusion of exercise in the last revision of the Food Pyramid is perfect considering all of the other horseshit decisions made in developing this abomination. Here’s a passage that reveals the utter ignorance - or willful stupidity - of those involved with this nonsense.

‘Sixty to 90 minutes of daily physical activity may be needed to prevent weight gain or sustain weight loss.’

Spectacular reveal of lack of knowledge. This is a brilliant video. Watch it and you will never be able to stomach any dolt who makes statements about ‘working off’ excess calories, or managing weight with ‘cardio,’ or any other kind of exercise.

The Pyramid Makes You Fatter

Circling back to my point about women getting the worst of it with diets, big and small, let’s go through the Pyramid and use an American women of average weight and body fat, who is trying to exist on 1600 calories per day.

According to our government, the same one that is responsible for the Pyramid, the average American woman weighs 166 pounds and has a body fat of 41%. This means the average woman is 68 pounds adipose tissue (fat) and 98 pounds of lean tissue (everything else).

The goal of every diet should be to fuel the lean tissue, aka active tissue, aka mostly muscle. There is a simple guideline anyone can use to make sure that they are getting the appropriate amount of protein, the ONLY type of food that builds and maintains muscle.

Regardless of activity level, weight, sex, or level of health I have used this formula to help people lose weight, gain weight, improve performance, or any other positive metric there is.

Nobody hates math more than I, but sometimes you just have to suck it up.

To determine the appropriate amount of protein intake, you need to convert weight in pounds to kilograms, and then adjust your intake to get a minimum of 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Now back in the old days, when I was a kid, the recommendation was .8 grams; no wonder I couldn’t gain any weight….

Recent research has shown that protein intake of greater than 1.5 grams is appropriate as activity level increases. My athletes are all at 2 grams per kilogram minimum, as are most of my recreational clients.

At this point, I usually hear from someone about how too much protein is toxic. That’s pure nonsense, and agenda-driven propaganda nonsense that will be addressed in another post.

So let’s get back to our average woman, let’s call her Joan; her lean weight - 98 pounds - we divide by 2.2 to convert to kilograms - 44.5 kilos. Which means that Joan should get about 67 grams of protein per day (44.5 x 1.5).

Now we can turn to our handy-dandy Food Pyramid, courtesy of our concerned government, and see how that stacks up.

Let’s go right to the protein recommendation, because this is what matters most. So Jane - or Joan - who is told she should subsist on 1600 calories per day - BTW, a total random number that’s not based on current, valid research - should eat 2, 2.5 ounces of a protein, for a paltry total of 5 ounces of protein.

These 5 ounces of protein will give Jane - at best - around 39 grams of protein/160 calories if she eats beef, and 35g/140c and 32g/130c for salmon and chicken, respectively. Remember, that’s for a whole day.

Out of 1600 calories, which is super low, backing out the 160 - only one tenth of her daily intake - leaves 1440 calories to be spread out over carbs and fat. And since fat is bad, bad, bad, we’re talking mostly carbs.

Look at the oils slice in the 2005 diagram, and worse look at the recommendations to the bottom right. Vegetable oils? Not read any good research over the past 20+ years?

And it’s ironic how the government’s disdain for real fat like butter and lard was responsible for the advent of the very bad and dangerous trans fats, and now they are telling us to avoid them. ‘Tut tut, no need to dwell on the fact we caused more harm…again…’

Veggies and fruits aren’t bad for you, but they are not a way to sustain and help thrive; the bottom line is unless it’s protein, it doesn’t build or maintain muscle. Plus these foods are not calorie or nutrient-dense, so that means the bulk of calories in the Food Pyramid come from carbs.

This is not an anti-carb, pro-Keto rant. I am just pointing out that if you eat like the government wants you to, you will be fatter, less healthy, and less capable than you should be. Oh, and guess what? Eating this way is precisely why the average American woman is 41% body fat at 166 pounds and man is 28% at 198 pounds.

Now, you will see there is a pretty obvious difference between women and men, but the average for both sexes fall into the obese category.

This Has Nothing to do With Weight

Nowhere in this post have I mentioned weight, because weight is irrelevant. Taking Jane, our average woman, if she weighs 166 but is 24% body fat, she’s a physical specimen. Conversely, if she’s 126 but, 32%, not so much.

And the Food Pyramid compounds its mistake by the incremental change made for the woman going from 1600 to 2200 calories per day, while allowing only for 1 additional ounce of protein! The ounce of protein is about 8 grams/ 32 calories, which means that the 568 additional calories are basically going to come from carbs, especially when the Pyramid preaches low-fat/non-fat folderol.

The Food Pyramid protein-starves people. The more active the person is, the worse this negative effect is. It’s worth repeating; only protein can maintain and build muscle.

When a person does not get enough protein, the body rids itself of the tissue that burns/requires calories…and that tissue is…MUSCLE! Exercise does not somehow make muscle out of fat. The body needs protein, and plenty of it.

I cannot tell you how many people, over the past 30+ years have complained to me about how they feel they never get the results that they want and expect given their activity level. Rarely has any person been able to intelligently relate to me their protein intake, and the knowledge that plenty of protein is the key to building muscle and improving performance.

This scenario explains why the average American’s body fat is in the obese zone; the nutritional recommendations that have been coming from the government since at least the 1970’s are responsible for the vast majority of health problems that they were designed/intended to prevent, and have made it impossible for people to develop to their potential.

This is the most obvious example of how the government doesn’t have a clue when it comes to our health. This is something that we live with and that, one way or another, negatively impacts us everyday. The Food Pyramid serves as the perfect example of why we all need to be more invested and involved with our health and well-being.

There will be more to come on this concept as we move forward. I hope you enjoy this and find it valuable, and look forward to hearing your comments.