5 ms·

Did you actually base what you ate on the food pyramid? I have heard this levied against the government before as having caused the obesity epidemic, but I rea

by donatj 3y ago

Did you actually base what you ate on the food pyramid? I have heard this levied against the government before as having caused the obesity epidemic, but I really can’t imagine someone who sitting around deciding “I have to eat more bread, the government’s pyramid drawing demands it” rather than just eating what they want to eat. I grew up in the same period, they showed us the pyramid in school and I literally never gave it a second thought.

wincy 3y ago
We did because the schools followed the food pyramid. So they pushed foods on us that were low fat and high carb (like the ‘healthy’ chocolate skim milk, and no whole milk). Margarine instead of butter. Government food recommendations are HUGE deal to kids in public schools in the United States.
- donatj 3y ago
  Ah, that is a good point. I was a poor sack lunch kid so I never considered that aspect. Have they improved at all? Minnesota passed free school lunch for all, and my daughter will be starting school in a few years. Packing her a healthy lunch literally becomes the more expensive option.
  - acdha 3y ago
    It very much depends on where you live. Many Republicans were livid about Michelle Obama’s healthy school lunch effort and that inspired unnecessary rancor over what shouldn’t be controversial. The other problem is that if kids aren’t used to eating vegetables at home they might not eat them at school, and the schools don’t want to deal with increased waste / throwing.
    - jtdev 3y ago
      [dead]
  - andrepd 3y ago
    It's so weird to me that free school lunches for children are something that is not 100% immediately obvious and uncontroversial and beyond any discussion. Even in the UK in the 1980s, at the height of ghoulish neoliberal Thatcherism, there was a major controversy when she tried to stop giving free milk to kids in school (milk-snatcher they called her).
- j-a-a-p 3y ago
  I can't imagine eating high carb and margarine is a problem for children. They burn anything they swallow especially if you stick to decent carbs like bread or rice. It derails where parents serve yoghurt drinks to babies (have seen that) or when they get accustomed to open the fridge for a drink (seen that also).
  - vintermann 3y ago
    Until recently, margarine was high in trans fats, which are especially unhealthy.
- vintermann 3y ago
  Margarine and butter both sort under "fat" in old dietary guidelines. The reason schools (or anyone) preferred the former was because of cost. I bet government food recommendations was just the starting point, and concerns about cost and getting kids to actually eat it would have transformed any plan into something similar. Calories processed into pure forms (sugar and fat) are cheap. Grains are super cheap, which was a big part of why they were the backbone of dietary recommendations for so long - no use instructing people to eat something they can't afford.
unlikelytomato 3y ago
Directly and indirectly. Buying decisions from parents was influenced. Advertising influenced people. School lunches. What parents would feed other kids after activities. Habits of people "never giving it a second thought" were still being shaped by these forces. Even if someone only thinks about it a fraction of the time, it moves the needle. If my mom ate 10% more processed carbs than her parents and passed those habits to me, I was impacted. Rinse Repeat for 60 years.
matthewtse 3y ago
> I really can’t imagine someone who sitting around deciding “I have to eat more bread, the government’s pyramid drawing demands it” rather than just eating what they want to eat. Actually, to a shocking degree, yes. I grew up in an immigrant family, so my parents were far too busy working to do non-mainstream research on diet. I grew up eating 2+ bowls of white rice, another serving of vegetables, and a small serving of meat for most meals. This was me "trying to be healthy" given the mainstream knowledge at the time. If your parents aren't well-off enough to do dedicated research into the optimal diet for their children (which describes most of American parents), then you'll follow the advertised government guidelines.
- jonplackett 3y ago
  As diets go, meat, rice and vegetables isn’t that bad. Cereal… not so great.
  - fundad 3y ago
    Agreed, the thing is my kids can afford the calories that I’ve been avoiding for a very long time. Starch has energy, habits about balance are important too.
  - okaram 3y ago
    Rice is s cereal. The main problem is the processing, not the underlying grain ;)
    - rolph 3y ago
      > processing < rice crispies, and puffed rice in the 5 gallon bag [next to the puffed wheat] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffed_rice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffed_rice
    - jonplackett 3y ago
      Yeah m, thought th ‘breakfast’ part of cereal was a given since that’s what we’re discussing.
- 3y ago
Mistletoe 3y ago
I really doubt if people actually ate the food guide pyramid they would be overweight. The problem is they still lace everything with that top part of fats, oils, and sweets. Cheetos are not the base of the pyramid. I don’t know anyone that is obese from eating whole grain breads, rice, and pasta. It’s not calorie dense until you start adding all the extras. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/12/13/whats-on-your-table-how-americas-diet-has-changed-over-the-decades/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/12/13/whats-on-... > he or she also consumes 36 pounds of cooking oils – more than three times as much as in the early 1970s. > Broadly speaking, we eat a lot more than we used to: The average American consumed 2,481 calories a day in 2010, about 23% more than in 1970.
rubyfan 3y ago
If you ate lunch served by a public school then your diet was impacted by the food pyramid.
veidr 3y ago
Well-meaning adults based what they gave kids on the food pyramid.
- vintermann 3y ago
  If that were true, and the food pyramid was this disaster, you'd expect the kids of the well-educated middle class to be fatter and the kids of parentally neglected kids to be thinner. If it's not like that, probably other factors were a lot more important than the food pyramid.
tenebrisalietum 3y ago
It definitely contributed to the overall feeling or notion of what was considered healthy by non-nutritionists.
tzs 3y ago
> I have heard this levied against the government before as having caused the obesity epidemic, but I really can’t imagine someone who sitting around deciding “I have to eat more bread, the government’s pyramid drawing demands it” rather than just eating what they want to eat. And even if a huge number of Americans did robotically follow it that would not explain the obesity epidemic, because the obesity epidemic is worldwide.
- vintermann 3y ago
  The obesity epidemic varies widely by county. But many countries that had a similar food pyramid are relatively thin, and some countries that are very obese never had one, so you're right that it's a poor explanation
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y ago
I have to measure sugar level everyday, so I have rapid numerical feedback on my eating habits, that helps to nudge me to healthier choices.

by donatj 3y ago

wincy 3y ago

We did because the schools followed the food pyramid. So they pushed foods on us that were low fat and high carb (like the ‘healthy’ chocolate skim milk, and no whole milk). Margarine instead of butter. Government food recommendations are HUGE deal to kids in public schools in the United States.

donatj 3y ago
Ah, that is a good point. I was a poor sack lunch kid so I never considered that aspect. Have they improved at all? Minnesota passed free school lunch for all, and my daughter will be starting school in a few years. Packing her a healthy lunch literally becomes the more expensive option.
- acdha 3y ago
  It very much depends on where you live. Many Republicans were livid about Michelle Obama’s healthy school lunch effort and that inspired unnecessary rancor over what shouldn’t be controversial. The other problem is that if kids aren’t used to eating vegetables at home they might not eat them at school, and the schools don’t want to deal with increased waste / throwing.
  - jtdev 3y ago
    [dead]
- andrepd 3y ago
  It's so weird to me that free school lunches for children are something that is not 100% immediately obvious and uncontroversial and beyond any discussion. Even in the UK in the 1980s, at the height of ghoulish neoliberal Thatcherism, there was a major controversy when she tried to stop giving free milk to kids in school (milk-snatcher they called her).
j-a-a-p 3y ago
I can't imagine eating high carb and margarine is a problem for children. They burn anything they swallow especially if you stick to decent carbs like bread or rice. It derails where parents serve yoghurt drinks to babies (have seen that) or when they get accustomed to open the fridge for a drink (seen that also).
- vintermann 3y ago
  Until recently, margarine was high in trans fats, which are especially unhealthy.
vintermann 3y ago
Margarine and butter both sort under "fat" in old dietary guidelines. The reason schools (or anyone) preferred the former was because of cost. I bet government food recommendations was just the starting point, and concerns about cost and getting kids to actually eat it would have transformed any plan into something similar. Calories processed into pure forms (sugar and fat) are cheap. Grains are super cheap, which was a big part of why they were the backbone of dietary recommendations for so long - no use instructing people to eat something they can't afford.

unlikelytomato 3y ago

Directly and indirectly. Buying decisions from parents was influenced. Advertising influenced people. School lunches. What parents would feed other kids after activities. Habits of people "never giving it a second thought" were still being shaped by these forces. Even if someone only thinks about it a fraction of the time, it moves the needle. If my mom ate 10% more processed carbs than her parents and passed those habits to me, I was impacted. Rinse Repeat for 60 years.

matthewtse 3y ago

> I really can’t imagine someone who sitting around deciding “I have to eat more bread, the government’s pyramid drawing demands it” rather than just eating what they want to eat. Actually, to a shocking degree, yes. I grew up in an immigrant family, so my parents were far too busy working to do non-mainstream research on diet. I grew up eating 2+ bowls of white rice, another serving of vegetables, and a small serving of meat for most meals. This was me "trying to be healthy" given the mainstream knowledge at the time. If your parents aren't well-off enough to do dedicated research into the optimal diet for their children (which describes most of American parents), then you'll follow the advertised government guidelines.

jonplackett 3y ago
As diets go, meat, rice and vegetables isn’t that bad. Cereal… not so great.
- fundad 3y ago
  Agreed, the thing is my kids can afford the calories that I’ve been avoiding for a very long time. Starch has energy, habits about balance are important too.
- okaram 3y ago
  Rice is s cereal. The main problem is the processing, not the underlying grain ;)
  - rolph 3y ago
    > processing < rice crispies, and puffed rice in the 5 gallon bag [next to the puffed wheat] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffed_rice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffed_rice
  - jonplackett 3y ago
    Yeah m, thought th ‘breakfast’ part of cereal was a given since that’s what we’re discussing.
3y ago

Mistletoe 3y ago

I really doubt if people actually ate the food guide pyramid they would be overweight. The problem is they still lace everything with that top part of fats, oils, and sweets. Cheetos are not the base of the pyramid. I don’t know anyone that is obese from eating whole grain breads, rice, and pasta. It’s not calorie dense until you start adding all the extras. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/12/13/whats-on-your-table-how-americas-diet-has-changed-over-the-decades/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/12/13/whats-on-... > he or she also consumes 36 pounds of cooking oils – more than three times as much as in the early 1970s. > Broadly speaking, we eat a lot more than we used to: The average American consumed 2,481 calories a day in 2010, about 23% more than in 1970.

rubyfan 3y ago

If you ate lunch served by a public school then your diet was impacted by the food pyramid.

veidr 3y ago

Well-meaning adults based what they gave kids on the food pyramid.

vintermann 3y ago
If that were true, and the food pyramid was this disaster, you'd expect the kids of the well-educated middle class to be fatter and the kids of parentally neglected kids to be thinner. If it's not like that, probably other factors were a lot more important than the food pyramid.

tenebrisalietum 3y ago

It definitely contributed to the overall feeling or notion of what was considered healthy by non-nutritionists.

tzs 3y ago

> I have heard this levied against the government before as having caused the obesity epidemic, but I really can’t imagine someone who sitting around deciding “I have to eat more bread, the government’s pyramid drawing demands it” rather than just eating what they want to eat. And even if a huge number of Americans did robotically follow it that would not explain the obesity epidemic, because the obesity epidemic is worldwide.

vintermann 3y ago
The obesity epidemic varies widely by county. But many countries that had a similar food pyramid are relatively thin, and some countries that are very obese never had one, so you're right that it's a poor explanation

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y ago

I have to measure sugar level everyday, so I have rapid numerical feedback on my eating habits, that helps to nudge me to healthier choices.