The Food Pyramid is about to die in the US - its replacement The Food Plate is better but it it still hangs onto the idea our problem is that we eat too many calories and that we eat too much animal fat.
Here is a quick background
The new Food Plate claims to be based on the best science. But it is not - they get 2 things wrong that are now established as being wrong.
- That the first driver for obesity that we eat more calories than we consume. But we are not machines. We are complex systems. The issue is really how the calories we eat are metabolized. Taubes argues that, contrary to prevailing opinion, it is not excess calories and a sedentary lifestyle that lead to overweightness and obesity. Instead, it is the quality of the calories – their macronutrient origin – that is crucial. He says that the typical recommendation to lose weight – eat less and exercise more – is basically intellectual nonsense: the less we eat, the lower our metabolic rate, and the less fat we metabolize; the more we exercise, the hungrier we get, and the more we eat. The diet advocated by the FDA, USDA, NAS, and myriads of other ‘professional’ organizations actually leads to a semi-starvation lifestyle, where people are constantly hungry.
How we metabolise sugars is how we get fat. Sugar and insulin resistance to too much sugar drive fat. This is how we get fat.
- They say we should limit our consumption of sugars and highly refined foods - that is good - but then they say eat more whole grains. But all grains are sugar.
- Worse they then also say we must limit our consumption of fat and meat. But the science is clear. We get fat by how we metabolize sugars - and all grains are in effect sugars - meats and fats are not. Ironically low fat milk has more lactose that full. Lactose is sugar.
So they start right All the science shows how sugars in all their forms do make us fat and they should be avoided. But cannot help themselves and then add in that fat makes us fat and that whole grains are good.
Are they not trying to hold two opposing ideas - the Lipid hypothesis and the Fat Hypothesis at the same time?
So long as the Government holds onto the Calories and Fat ideas - we will make no progress.
