The New American Food Pyramid

[freddyteisen]

The USDA flipped the food pyramid on January 7th.

This new food pyramid prioritizes meat, eggs, raw dairy, fruit, roots, and whole foods.

The old pyramid emphasized grains and carbohydrates, while recommending fewer animal foods.

Great to see this. A move in the right direction imo. What are your thoughts?

Edited January 10 by freddyteisen

[Rigel]

This one doesn’t look bad.

But it’s pretty much useless considering that eating right is very obvious & people just choose not to do it. This chart isn’t doing much to solve the real emotional issues people have that make them forget the difference between food & trash.

[pablo_aka_god]

3 hours ago, Rigel said:

This one doesn’t look bad.

But it’s pretty much useless considering that eating right is very obvious & people just choose not to do it. This chart isn’t doing much to solve the real emotional issues people have that make them forget the difference between food & trash.

I don't blame it on people. We have no health education, on the contrary we are influenced to have shitty habits

I think fixing the pyramid is a move in the correct direction, which is delivering more information to the public

[Carl-Richard]

If you move more, you can eat more carbs (in fact, you probably should). 80-90% of insulin-induced glucose control comes from skeletal muscles. But yes, a food pyramid that tends to place hyper processed foods at the bottom, for most people, that's good.

Edited January 10 by Carl-Richard

[UnbornTao]

Blueberries is all I care about. Fuck the rest. 

[Sugarcoat]

3 servings of full fat dairy a day is recommended LOL might as well buy a cow 😭

I think, if you are someone with decent health that feels good on Whole Foods, you aren’t sensitive to fiber or something, and you care about your imprint on this planet, It is responsible to also consider the environmental impact of what you consume. 

I think here in Sweden when you read dietary guidelines they also write about environmental impact which is good because it’s important. 
 

Also from what I’ve read for a while, lot of science says a diet that is mostly plants and  less animal products is better for most people 🤔 so it’s a bit “hmmmm” seeing it shift in another direction, and makes one wonder what it’s all based on. 

But also ofc it’s important to make healthy foods in general more available and convenient because many people aren’t quite motivated to do better unfortunately 

Edited January 10 by Sugarcoat

[Yimpa]

52 minutes ago, Sugarcoat said:

3 servings of full fat dairy a day is recommended LOL might as well buy a cow 😭

 

[freddyteisen]

Fixing the pyramid is definitely a step in the right direction. And hopefully European countries will follow along (I’m from Denmark myself).

Environmentally, it’s positive to focus on high quality meat from grassfed cows (one cow can feed an entire family for a year) or on eggs from pasture raised chickens, whereas it is

much more tanking on the environment to produce greenwashed labmade meat, highly processed oils, highly processed foods or spray millions of crops with pesticides to make ‘greensmoothies’.

We’ve been sold a lie that Cows are the problem.

They’ve been here for thousands of years, and they aren’t the ones destroying the environment.

We’re going in the right direction of emphasizing more real nutrition like meat, butter, eggs and milk.

Edited January 10 by freddyteisen

[UnbornTao]

3 hours ago, Sugarcoat said:

3 servings of full fat dairy a day is recommended LOL might as well buy a cow 😭

Not sure why dairy would be included in a pyramid like that. I get that commercial interests play a role in its design, though.

Dairy is a relatively recent development in human history, and most adult mammals don't drink milk. It's not necessary for health at all. Probably neither are bread and pasta, strictly speaking. That said, I do drink full-fat milk daily, mostly in my coffee.

A bit out of the blue, anyway.

[Sugarcoat]

37 minutes ago, freddyteisen said:

Fixing the pyramid is definitely a step in the right direction. And hopefully European countries will follow along (I’m from Denmark myself).

Environmentally, it’s positive to focus on high quality meat from grassfed cows (one cow can feed an entire family for a year) or on eggs from pasture raised chickens, whereas it is

much more tanking on the environment to produce greenwashed labmade meat, highly processed oils, highly processed foods or spray millions of crops with pesticides to make ‘greensmoothies’.

We’ve been sold a lie that Cows are the problem.

They’ve been here for thousands of years, and they aren’t the ones destroying the environment.

We’re going in the right direction of emphasizing more real nutrition like meat, butter, eggs and milk.

I have heard that if every human on earth consumed daily animal products in the high quantity that a lot of people in the west do , even if it all was sustainably raised it wouldn’t be sustainable, cows etc need a lot of land to graze and food, and they still release methane. In smaller quantity I think it’s ok but not too much . 

Edited January 10 by Sugarcoat

[Sugarcoat]

17 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

Not sure why dairy would be included in a pyramid like that. I get that commercial interests play a role in its design, though.

Dairy is a relatively recent development in human history, and most adult mammals don't drink milk. It's not necessary for health at all. Probably neither are bread and pasta, strictly speaking. That said, I do drink full-fat milk daily, mostly in my coffee.

A bit out of the blue, anyway.

Yea. I think the recommendations has some influences yes. And yea I drink it too in coffe only

One reason may be that because it contains a lot of nutrients, it’s healthy in that aspect, and since it’s convenient (it’s one single food with plenty nutrients that many find appetizing, instead of being recommended to combine several plants to get the same nutrients) then they’re more likely to recommend it because in some way they’re trying to make it easily applicable to public 
 

But nutrient dense ofc doesn’t automatically mean healthiEST. For example full fat diary has quite a bit saturated fat, and they still recommend max 10% saturated fat a day. So it’s a little contradictory to recommend it so much. 

Some thoughts 

 

Edited January 10 by Sugarcoat

[UnbornTao]

57 minutes ago, Sugarcoat said:

Yea. I think the recommendations has some influences yes. And yea I drink it too in coffe only

One reason may be that because it contains a lot of nutrients, it’s healthy in that aspect, and since it’s convenient (it’s one single food with plenty nutrients that many find appetizing, instead of being recommended to combine several plants to get the same nutrients) then they’re more likely to recommend it because in some way they’re trying to make it easily applicable to public 
 

But nutrient dense ofc doesn’t automatically mean healthiEST. For example full fat diary has quite a bit saturated fat, and they still recommend max 10% saturated fat a day. So it’s a little contradictory to recommend it so much. 

Some thoughts 

MILF:

Man I Love Food.

Edited January 10 by UnbornTao

[Sugarcoat]

19 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

MILF:

Man I Love Food.

Okay 😂😂

[Yimpa]

1 hour ago, UnbornTao said:

MILF:

Man I Love Food.

YOU CAN’T EAT ME!

[UnbornTao]

@Sugarcoat @Yimpa 

[PsychedelicEagle]

Quite controversial to write "healthy fats" next to pretty much all major sources of saturated fat; goes against scientific evidence, which favors poly- and monounsaturated fats. Encouraging "whole foods" and disencouraging refined grains and carbohydrates is obviously positive.

Btw, are butter, cheese, and yogurt "whole foods", really? They are all refined versions of milk IMHO.

Also, emphasizing protein does not really address the major public health issues nowadays which are chronic diseases such as CVD, diabetes, obesity, etc. Emphasizing fiber would be more positive IMO.

 

Edited January 11 by PsychedelicEagle

[aurum]

“Eat real foods” they say, while holding up pictures of bananas.

This whole processed vs real debate is missing the point.

Edited January 11 by aurum

[freddyteisen]

@PsychedelicEagle Saturated fats are essential for the development and long-term health of your body.

But yes, the source is key. It must come from high quality sources (pasture raised/grass fed) such as eggs, butter, cheese, milk and animal tallow.

These foods contain important bioavailable minerals and vitamins (like vitamin K2 & b-vitamins) that are crucial for all your bodily functions.

The idea that saturated fat is bad is mostly based on flawed science, such as The 7 Countries Study by Ancel Keys, a study later proved to be false.

[Jannes]

On 10.1.2026 at 9:16 AM, freddyteisen said:

The USDA flipped the food pyramid on January 7th.

This new food pyramid prioritizes meat, eggs, raw dairy, fruit, roots, and whole foods.

The old pyramid emphasized grains and carbohydrates, while recommending fewer animal foods.

Great to see this. A move in the right direction imo. What are your thoughts?

Categorically I am not a fan of such pyramids because they are forced to simplify. But I generally quite like it purely from a health standpoint. (ethics, costs and environmental impact aside)

I would critique that there is no plant protein source in the Protein section like legumes or soy. Meat is fine but this suggests that its only possible to get protein from meats. Also I dont get why there are all these fatty meats, full fat milk, butter etc. For weight reduction and health you want leaner proteins and fats from plant sources. A bit of fatty meat is okay but it shouldnt be the standard choice as seems to be suggested here. 

And I would add a tiny section at the buttom with junk food. No one is perfect and little treats are nesseccary to not crash with healthy eating. 

Edited January 11 by Jannes

[Jannes]

On 10.1.2026 at 7:41 PM, Sugarcoat said:

3 servings of full fat dairy a day is recommended LOL might as well buy a cow 😭

The standard in Germany for as long as I can remember. Adaptations have been made to 2 servings now.