American Food Pyramid
vapianogirl2553
Posts: 20 Member
I find the amounts of things your supposed to get each day basically impossible to actually eat that much food. Is there any credible research that points to the nutritional advice being overkill? Do you really need 60 grams of protein for instance or the crazy amount of calcium that's typically recommended?
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60 grams of protein is pretty low...I'd say that's pretty minimal. The RDA for protein is a minimum to avoid protein deficiency, which is a thing. It's not even close to overkill. If you're losing weight and/or active, more is recommended as it preserves lean mass and when you're active substantially aids in repair of broken down tissues.
4 oz of chicken (which isn't a lot of chicken...about 1/2 a breast at most) has around 35 grams of protein...more than 1/2 of the 60 grams.
In general, I find the food pyramid or myplate to be adequate, but minimal in most of their suggestions.6 -
The American food pyramid was originally designed by the farm lobby to get Americans to eat more of what they were producing: namely meat, grains, and dairy.
GO BIG BROCCOLI!!7 -
There is no current American food pyramid, and I don't buy into any conspiracy theories about the pyramid that was, except I do think it was originally light on vegetable requirements and heavier on grains because they were focused on cheaper items.
The current one (MyPlate) doesn't try to say how many cals one should eat as a one-size-fits-all prescription, although it has suggestions for those on different calorie levels and a calculator similar to that on MFP. I did it, and it tells me I should eat 2000 for maintenance (which is consistent with what other calculators say with the same inputs).
It then suggests servings of various food groups in a way I find unhelpful, but someone with a bad diet and little knowledge about food. I think the recommendations for veg are way low, but given how few veg the average American eats I get they are trying to work with them, and I think recommending "protein foods" (a category separate from dairy, which can be a great source of protein) in oz rather than grams (although it does recommend leaner proteins) is silly in that obviously different sources have different cals and protein grams.
I didn't see a gram protein recommendation on MyPlate, or a specific calcium amount and am pretty sure that wasn't on the old pyramid either. I suspect you are talking about RDA, and RDA isn't especially high for protein at all (it's commonly recommended to have more if one is concerned with muscle building, maintenance when losing, when aging, and if an active person, such as someone who does a lot of exercise). As for calcium, I have no special knowledge, although the amounts recommended of various micros are supposed to be sufficient so that 95% of people won't be deficient or some such. Some may be fine on less. But no, I doubt it's crazy high and would suggest comparing US calcium recs to those in other countries if you think ours may be extra high (I don't know what the comparative amounts would be).6 -
Sooo . . . how many calories are you trying to fit all that food into, and what are your personal go-to foods that use up a fair fraction of your calories day to day?
I didn't have super much trouble fitting reasonable nutrition (in excess of USDA RDAs for the things I pay attention to, which I admit isn't every detail) into fairly moderate calories (say 1400-ish plus exercise, maybe lower).
It makes me wonder how low a calorie goal you're trying to hit (at what current body size), and what foods are filling up that calorie goal without reaching protein goals or calcium? Do you have dietary limitations (like being a fully plant-based eater, not a bad thing at all - I'm vegetarian - but one that can make it a little tougher to hit calcium or protein, for example)?
Like Lemur said, the pyramid isn't even the current USDA paradigm, so I'm a bit confused here . . . ?5 -
I'm not a fan of it. I think the government should probably get out of the nutrition recommendation business seeing as they have a poor track record of making good, nutritionally sound, scientifically backed recommendations.7
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Sooo . . . how many calories are you trying to fit all that food into, and what are your personal go-to foods that use up a fair fraction of your calories day to day?
I didn't have super much trouble fitting reasonable nutrition (in excess of USDA RDAs for the things I pay attention to, which I admit isn't every detail) into fairly moderate calories (say 1400-ish plus exercise, maybe lower).
It makes me wonder how low a calorie goal you're trying to hit (at what current body size), and what foods are filling up that calorie goal without reaching protein goals or calcium? Do you have dietary limitations (like being a fully plant-based eater, not a bad thing at all - I'm vegetarian - but one that can make it a little tougher to hit calcium or protein, for example)?
I wondered the same thing. Also, if the calcium is based on what MFP shows, it could be wrong, as many MFP entries don't have calcium filled in. So someone could be getting more than what MFP lists.
But absent something like being a plant-based eater new to watching macros, 60 g protein shouldn't be difficult on a reasonable calorie budget.Like Lemur said, the pyramid isn't even the current USDA paradigm, so I'm a bit confused here . . . ?
Right, and the protein and calcium numbers are from a separate source entirely. I'd like to know if we are talking about the RDA numbers, since I suspect all these people claiming the (no longer used) pyramid is so bad might not be so quick to dismiss the RDA. But who knows.
I would be curious how the US RDA numbers compare with those in the UK or other European countries, however.3 -
I'm not a fan of it. I think the government should probably get out of the nutrition recommendation business seeing as they have a poor track record of making good, nutritionally sound, scientifically backed recommendations.
If the average person actually followed the old food pyramid or MyPlate, a lot of people would be better off...it's not the recommendations that are the overall problem, it's that people in general don't remotely follow those recommendations. It's not perfect by any means, but for something that is supposed to cover a huge population, it's reasonably good...if people actually followed those recommendations.12 -
So I have a desk job and eat about 1,700 can't a day sometimes closer to 2,000 I like veggies, fruit occasionally I drink homemade chi lattes to get 8 ounce of milk I do meat and have no restrictions at all0
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Are you still having issues with protein? What are your usual protein/fat/carb numbers in grams?0
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cwolfman13 wrote: »I'm not a fan of it. I think the government should probably get out of the nutrition recommendation business seeing as they have a poor track record of making good, nutritionally sound, scientifically backed recommendations.
If the average person actually followed the old food pyramid or MyPlate, a lot of people would be better off...it's not the recommendations that are the overall problem, it's that people in general don't remotely follow those recommendations. It's not perfect by any means, but for something that is supposed to cover a huge population, it's reasonably good...if people actually followed those recommendations.
Well said sir. Now, could swapping the veggie and fruit with the starch make it better? Maybe. We know populations with the highest fresh fruit and vegetable consumption are some of the leanest and long lived.2 -
vapianogirl2553 wrote: »So I have a desk job and eat about 1,700 can't a day sometimes closer to 2,000 I like veggies, fruit occasionally I drink homemade chi lattes to get 8 ounce of milk I do meat and have no restrictions at all
60g of protein is only 240 calories. If you're eating 1700 cals it shouldn't be a struggle to fit that in. Is it possible you're not logging your calories correctly?6 -
Not sure about the American food pyramid, we had a 'food rainbow' until a couple of years ago here in Canada that was basically the same thing. The replacement? Basically it just says 'try to eat a balanced meal with the food groups and you will be fine'. Honesty unless you are really struggling with weight loss or are trying to be a body builder or something I wouldn't be too hung up on how much of everything you eat (unless you are nutritionally deficient somehow). Try to eat some of each food group and you will be fine, as long as you don't eat too many calories you should be good. If what you are eating seems like a reasonable meal (Aka not chips for breakfast, lunch, and dinner) then it probably is.0
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UK we have NHS eat well. Used to be the Eat Well Plate or something based around that. Recommendations are eat your 5 a day, base the main bulk of your meals on higher starch foods like potatoes, bread, rice and pasta, some dairy, some protein and low amounts of saturated fats and drink 6 to 8 glasses of fluids. I think most people who get in shape probably do protein first and the amount they eat?
Just had a Google search they show an infographic of what it should look like and over 1/3 -of your diet should be based on starchy carbs 😬 (apparently)0 -
I think there's a lot to be said for starchy carbs for the mainstream public.
First, people are loath to give them up, so may as well work them in.
Second, from a government standpoint (esp. UK with its universal NIH healthcare) it makes sense that the cheapest foods are good to keep in the plan. Grains and root vegetables have been one of the industrial miracles of the world for what, 5000 years? It's what made it possible to have large populations and feed them fairly inexpensively and with basic nutrition.4 -
Let's remember that the target audience for the Food Pyramid are not really the intensely interested folks here. They are mostly kids and unfortunate adults who, for whatever reason, get most of their food from plastic bags that come from a convenience store. Its sort of like when you get the instructions on your space heater where they remind you that it does not into the water when you are taking a bath. Seems like a message one would not need to hear.1
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So I figured out 1 is I was incorrectly logging meals and leaving off dinner which is usually a steak or meat. also I was really not into eating protein and leaned heavy on veggies and fruits. I now am sneaking protein into my diet with protein Waters, Greek youghrt, soymilk and Luna bars. Not super "healthy" I know but I actually am seeing huge gains. Also the protein fills me up a lot. I really don't have any interest in eating big meals or lots of protein but am coming around to it. Becoming a college student turned my appetite on big time and I had to sit down and work out reasonable macros.1
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The Dutch have the Schrijf van vijf (disk of 5)
The biggest part form fruit and veggies (green), followed by bread, grainproducts and potatoes (orange). Water, coffee and tea (blue) and dairy, fish, meat, nuts, pulses and eggs (pink) follow, and then fats on bread and for cooking (yellow). Considering only dinner is cooked traditionally, and dairy and bread play a big role for other meals this makes a lot of sense. Actually, this is also how I mostly eat, though dairy has a much lower importance for me overall.
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And here's the German equivalent. Every square means a fist-sized portion per day. In a way quite similar in amounts to the Dutch one with the difference that a snack per day is fine in Germany, and they think in potatoes rather than grainy/starchy sides to the main meal.
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This is the actual US one:
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There is, of course, related advice as part of it. It's pretty simplistic.1
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