Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced new dietary guidelines for America — focused on promoting whole foods, protein, and healthy fats.
At a press conference last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services unveiled a new food pyramid with red meat, cheese, vegetables and fruits pictured at the top.
We’re displaying a picture of the new food pyramid at the top of this page.
Obviously, it’s not meant to be a comprehensive illustration, because several things are missing from the picture.
Chocolate, for one thing. Also, French fries.
We see a ‘peanut’, but no peanut butter.
It’s not my habit to complain, but in this case, it can’t be helped. So please bear with me as I vent my feelings about where the American diet might be headed.
The new food pyramid is a rather striking change from the previous HHS food pyramid, shown below. Previously, we were told to pig out regularly on bread, cereal, rice and pasta (at the base of the pyramid). Fats, oils and sweets were relegated to the tiny little segment at the top, indicating that we were supposed to use them “sparingly”.
This was an actual pyramid… similar to the famous pyramids in Egypt that have lasted 4,700 years.
To make a pyramid last 4,700 years, you need a very wide base at the bottom and a little pointy top. Eventually, this results in a tourist attraction.
The new “pyramid” announced by HHS — under the guidance of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — is not a pyramid at all.
It has a roughly triangular shape, but is completely unstable.
If the Egyptians had built their pyramids like this, balanced on the tiny little point, they wouldn’t have lasted a week.
Another problem with the new “not-a-pyramid” is that the ground beef is shown at the top, still raw, in a black plastic tray. Many Americans would fail to recognize ground beef in this configuration, because we normally buy our ground beef already grilled and stuffed inside a hamburger bun.
But now the hamburger bun is at the “bottom” of the not-a-food-pyramid, and the ground beef is near the very top. Does this make any sense?
In fact, all the meat is at the very top.
I’m not surprised, however, that there are so many things wrong with the new not-a-food-pyramid. Secretary Kennedy is a lawyer by trade, so what did we expect? Mr. Kennedy spent much of his career warning Americans about “environmental damage hidden in plain sight”. He has sued polluters; he has denounced the ways powerful companies use their influence to shape laws, regulations and institutions; he has spoken passionately about ecological collapse — including at the hands of the meat industry.
Eating less meat remains one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest ways to reduce environmental damage globally. It requires no new technology, no congressional approval, no subsidies, no tax credits.
But, at his core, Mr. Kennedy is a still lawyer.
So when HHS released the not-a-food-pyramid and the associated dietary guidelines last week, with an emphasis on animal-based proteins and fats — featuring images of a roasted bird, a juicy steak, ground beef, and cheese at the very top — I hope no one was too surprised.
Eating a mostly-vegetarian diet is not only good for the environment; it’s also known to be good for your pocketbook. Assuming you still have a pocketbook. Most of us only have credit cards these days.
Now HHS has now published guidelines telling us to eat up to twice as much (expensive) meat protein as previously advised. But without the bun.
One more complaint. There’s a cube of something, near the middle of the not-a-pyramid, that might be butter, or might be margarine. I’m hoping it’s butter. But to judge by all the obvious mistakes that HHS has made over the past year, I bet it’s margarine.
Fortunately, Americans have access to an alternative pyramid.
I’m not sure who proposed this pyramid. I did a search for the Association named in the illustration and was not able to find their website.
But this proposed pyramid gives me hope for America.
It doesn’t specifically mention butter. But it mentions ice cream and milkshakes. (Two more things missing from the official HHS illustration.)
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.