Forgotten Food Pyramid Lore
How Dietary Guidelines Exacerbated the Obesity and Chronic Disease Crisis
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and none of this should be misconstrued as medical advice. I am merely an inquisitive cartoon on the internet with a strong distrust in mainstream “health” authorities.
In the early 80s, Louise Light was a well-known nutritionist teaching at NYU.
Approached by the USDA with an offer to write a new food guide, she accepted it and moved to Washington for the endeavor.
Light quickly realized that there was a variety of industry interests involved in this process that would attempt to influence her.
Despite this, she created a guide that was rooted in what she thought would be best for the average person.
Her new guide was based off of “studies of population diets, research on health problems linked to food and nutrition patterns, and the newest dietary standards from the National Academy of Sciences.”
With her team of experts, Light eventually arrived at the recommendations of:
• 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables
• 2-3 servings of dairy
• 5-7 ounces of protein foods
• 2-3 servings of whole grain breads
But if you're familiar with the Food Pyramid, you know that's nothing like what was rolled out. Here's an excerpt from Light's 2006 book, explaining what happened in her own words:
“When the new food guide came back from review by the office of the Secretary of Agriculture, changes had been made to it. The number of servings in the whole grains category had been altered from the original two to three to six to eleven, and the words “whole grains” were nowhere to be found. Dairy was not three to four servings, protein foods had become two to three servings, and fats, oils, and sweets to ‘use moderately,’ without further explanation.”
So in the review process, the USDA created an entirely new food guide, disregarding a huge portion (pun intended) of the recommendations Light had made.
The new food guide would look something like this:
This pyramid had:
• significantly more grain recommendations
• no mention of whole vs refined grains
• a few other food changes that aren’t as notable
Light, obviously in shock with these changes, warned her superiors of the dangers of these baseless recommendations to no avail.
She argued these recommendations would do nothing to solve the increasing obesity rates and chronic disease of the time and could even make the situation worse.
She was right.
Yet, Light's protests were ignored and this corrupted Food Pyramid was eventually put out in 1992 and ran until 2011. For almost 20 years, people were told to eat a certain way under the guise of health while really funneling money into corrupt industry.
That means school lunches, nutritional education, and wide-scale eating habits have all been rooted in what makes food and ag corporations more money— NOT what’s best for health.
"Dietary Guidelines" have just been glorified marketing tools.
References:
• What To Eat: The Ten Things You Really Need To Know To Eat Well and Be Healthy by Luise Light
• A Fatally Flawed Food Guide by Luise Light