So we’ve got a new food pyramid. Is this one going to change what people eat, or make people healthier?

Time will tell.

I think most people are going to eat what they can afford to eat these days. Processed or not. Red meat or (probably) not- it is expensive. And was anyone paying much attention to the food pyramid anyway? Oh yeah- what about MyPlate?! I did like MyPlate. It seemed pretty solid, with half of it being filled with fruits and vegetables.

Do we need to “declare war” on anything food-related? No more war on saturated fats, but we’re going to war on sugar. High-fructose corn syrup, specifically, is a lot worse than plain ‘ole sugar, and it’s made its way into so much of our food.

Then there’s protein- Keto and protein are very in at the moment. There are times when I know that a higher protein meal will keep me going. But that’s something that I’ve learned over time, mostly by listening to my body. And the cleaner the protein the better. Like- plain unsalted almonds would be better than a hot dog.

The recommendations on saturated fats are interesting. I’m not going to go out of my way to eat more of them.

I do appreciate the recommendations regarding highly processed food. If I had a favorite take-away from the new food pyramid, it would be that. Something interesting that I came across was an article talking about how a lot of the food in the grocery store is highly processed- and not just the “junk food.”

The article, by Johns Hopkins researchers, stated that over half of American’s calories consumed at home were ultraprocessed. (Article link below). That seems like WAY TOO MUCH.

I started thinking about what I’ve had to eat over the last couple days, and how much was ultraprocessed, meaning it had artificial ingredients and added color. I was thinking about earlier today. Just for lunch I had some frozen Kirkland-brand pizza. I thought this might have a lot of strange ingredients but the ingredient list looked pretty great. There isn’t anything weird in there. I also had some fruits and vegetables today, and some cheese and crackers that were homemade. (Please don’t think I make homemade crackers all the time. I’ve done it maybe like one other time. I was off from work this past week though, and spent a whole day baking random things from a Scandinavian cookbook. I even made homemade candied orange peel, and that had a lot of sugar in it, let me tell you. It is delightful.) I had sugar-free creamer in my coffee earlier. I’m not sure I want to know what is in there lol.

I don’t regret the pizza. It was good. 🙂

What do you think about the new food pyramid? Do you think you’ll change what you’ve been eating because of it?

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/ultraprocessed-foods-account-for-more-than-half-of-calories-consumed-at-home