Quick Tip: Why The Food Pyramid Sucks

The Food Guide Pyramid, now referred to as My Plate, was first devised in 1992 through a joint endeavor by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the USDA. It was marketed as a guide to teach people how to choose “healthy foods.” It sucks. Anyone who adheres to it will eventually become an honorary member of The Fat Cow Hall of Fame. Biology 101 shows why…

Time out…

I’m not a nutritionist, or pretending to be one. In fact, I’ve only met a few of those hippie-types that I like. Most of ’em are always trying to ruin my favorite meals with their “Holier Than Thou” rants, while sporting 20lbs in carbohydrate fat…

But, My Plate is just so grossly behind the scientific times, I have to step up and say something. Most important, it ignores nutrient rich, naturally occurring proteins and fats, while recommending that at least 50% of your diet consist of whole grains – things like Amaranth, Barley, Buckwheat, Corn, Millet, Oats, including oatmeal, Quinoa, Rice, both brown rice and colored rice, Rye, Sorghum (also called milo), Teff, Wheat, including varieties such as spelt, emmer, farro, einkorn, Kamut®, durum and forms such as bulgur, cracked wheat and wheatberries. You’re better off eating Dog Chow because it would keep your metabolism moving at a much higher rate.

A diet high in grains raises blood sugar. To protect your body, the pancreas produces a “sugar taxi” known as insulin. This carries sugar out of the blood and into the cell where it is used for energy. Insulin and fat burning cannot co-exist, so every time you shove grains into your pie-hole, you’re suffocating fat metabolism and causing your gut to get bigger.

Over time, the excess sugar and insulin will lead to cravings, lack of energy, insulin resistance, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and inflammation leading to heart disease and cancer…Things that your neighbors suffer from and keep trying to remedy with exercise.

Without a doubt, The Food Pyramid/My Plate is not the ideal food guide. It’s nothing more than a thinly disguised marketing scheme for major food companies like Kellogs and General Mills to push their packaged, whole-grain foods. Luise Light, one of the original USDA scientists responsible for the Food Pyramid, publicly stated that her original plan, featuring a lower grains and a more balanced array of healthy fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, was rejected by the USDA upon the requests of processed food company lobbyists.