Rethinking the Food Pyramid: Emphasizing Quality

What were you taught was the basis of a healthy diet? Look around at Americans... do you think it's working?

• 70% of Americans are obese or overweight.

• 1 in 3 adolescents ages 12 to 17 are pre-diabetic.

• 90% of healthcare costs are spent on preventable chronic disease treatments.

This is not how America was 50 years ago. It's not how other developed countries are today. America has the highest burden of obesity, diabetes, and lung disease compared to our peers, yet we spend an average of twice as much per capita on health care.

If we continue down this road, we will self destruct. No amount of health care can make up for toxic food consumed every day. You are what you eat, and Americans eat junk food.

For decades the food pyramid taught in American schools has been built with a bottom-heavy foundation of grains and starches, followed by lesser portions of fruits and vegetables, followed by still less meat and dairy, with a dollop of salt and sugar on the tip top.

Whatever merits this food paradigm may have had, we didn't practice what we preached. The schools that I attended, and my kids attended, regularly allowed kids to consume massive quantities of sugar, foods deep fried in hydrogenated oils, and foods saturated with chemicals.

In theory we were teaching kids to avoid junk food, but in practice we were encouraging them to have all they could eat of it.

What if we have been approaching healthy food choices from the completely wrong angle? What if it's not about counting how many grams of carbs, protein, and fat we consume? What if the most important aspect of healthy eating is paying strict attention to the QUALITY of the food we eat?

Thankfully, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) has recognized the desperate need to reform the way America eats and has come up with a new food pyramid. It doesn't look anything like the old one... the visual impression is to fill your plate with whole meats, dairy, veggies, fruits, healthy fats, and if you are going to minimize anything, it's grain--and even those should be whole grains.

• Prioritizing Protein: New guidance increases protein significantly to support healthy body maintenance and metabolic health. Protein helps us feel full longer without blood sugar spikes. It is recommended that protein is the focus of every meal. Sources of protein may include animal products like red meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, and dairy, or plant sources such as beans, nuts and seeds. RFK would like to see emphasis on pasture raised and/or grass fed animal products.

• Ending the "War on Healthy Fats": A major flaw of the old paradigm was that it treated fats from animals worse than hydrogenated seed oils, which was fallacy. The new food pyramid encourages consumption of healthy fats from sources like olive oil, avocados, butter, and rendered animal fats. It does not emphasize that meats should be lean. A possible conflict is that they have retained the former guidance of keeping saturated fats to less than 10% of daily calories, which does not seem compatible with overall recommendations. As far as I'm concerned, don't worry about whether or not fat is saturated. Worry about the source of the fat and how processed it is. If it was derived directly from whole foods that were grown regeneratively, eat it! It's good for you.

Eating fat does not make you fat. If it did, I would be fat, and I'm not.

• Focus on Whole Foods: Choose foods that are in their original form or not far removed from it. The guidelines I personally follow are, if I can't take the original food that a product is derived from and create the product from it in my own kitchen with basic tools or appliances, then it's too processed for me.

• Minimizing Processed Foods and Added Sugar: We finally have guidance to stop feeding Americans junk food. It's not just candy and soda that are bad for you... most prepackaged, ready to eat foods contain huge amounts of salt, sugar, and numerous other food chemicals that are harmful to the gut and overall well being. The new guidelines call for avoiding highly processed packaged and ready-to-eat foods that are salty or sweet. It also recommends no added sugar for children 4 and under, and limits sugar for adults to no more than 10 grams per meal.

• Valuing Fruits, Vegetables, and Whole Grains: Nutritionists have always recognized that fruits and vegetables are important. Emphasis in the new paradigm is on ensuring that plant foods are whole. Grain is no longer regarded as an important food source, but when it is eaten, it should be in its whole, unrefined form.

  
  

• Flexibility and Personalization: This is not about counting calories, it's about finding healthy eating habits that you can maintain for the rest of your life. Individuals are encouraged to find the balance that works for them based on age, activity level, etc.

  
  

Why am I excited about this eating paradigm? Because it's exactly the way that I eat. I grew up following the traditional food pyramid and processed foods, and it failed me. I learned through a lot of trial and error that eating this way works for me. I believe it will work for you too.

People worry that the cost of groceries is going to increase if they have to shop this way. I'm not an economist, I can't speak to that. I will say, though, that I would rather prioritize healthy food in my budget and still be thriving into old age, than buy whatever is cheap and be broken down by the time I'm 50.

Hopefully though, with these guidelines, the price of healthy food will drop because that will become standard among the big food companies. Plus, we will no longer bear the tax and health insurance burdens for completely preventable chronic diseases. Count me in.

Are you ready to make healthy changes? Maybe the following decades will see Americans eating more whole foods directly from farms, less processed foods from factories, and becoming a leader in world health.

My farm's raw milk and pastured pork are the mainstay of my family's diet.

What whole foods can you use to replace refined foods habits?

(At the time of writing this, January 2026, I don't have extra raw grass fed milk or pasture raised half hogs available, but that will change soon. Click on these links to learn more!)