Humans, Real Food, Trillions of Dollars Lost
The problem with government food guidelines.
The worst thing for food companies is Americans eating real food. The worst thing for the American medical complex is Americans eating real food. The worst thing for the pharmaceutical industry is Americans eating real food. The worst thing for the insurance industry is Americans eating real food.
Generally, I don’t pay attention to government-related direction when it comes to health, as guidelines are not driven by love for the people of this country, but by whoever is paying the most lobbying money to get what they’re selling promoted at the expense of taxpayers.
The more the focus is on math, numbers, and isolated food components—carbohydrates, sugar, protein, fat, fiber, saturated fat—the easier it is for marketing strategies to sway Americans into believing that because particular phrases are on packages and particular numbers are being met, they are indeed promoting health.
At least not having ultra-processed food as the baseline for food in America moves us from being the laughingstock of the world when it comes to nutrition.
Today we’re talking about the biggest reset in federal nutrition policy in decades: the new U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans. These guidelines influence everything from school lunches to what doctors recommend for healthy eating—so they matter. I mean, the reason doctors have been recommending margarine, diet soda, and fat-free yogurt is because that’s what the guidelines previously emphasized.
The first thing I want to mention is that high protein, high fat, and high carbohydrate recommendations are all devoid of health promotion if they are not rooted in real food. There is a debate in the nutrition and regulatory field about there being too much protein emphasis in the latest guidelines. This debate in itself—a debate over macronutrients—shows us how far we still are from helping the non-health-vigilant American get the information they need to accumulate health. We do not need more protein to build health vigor alone; we need REAL food.
What I appreciate about this latest rendition is the emphasis on real food. Isn’t it wild there is so much kickback from this idea? When humans at a population level eat more real food, human health improves, the environment improves, and the reliance on artificial means for sustaining life and agriculture goes down. This is a significant problem for the trillion-dollar sick industry.
My Five Takeaways:
1. Higher protein emphasis
The guidelines push for protein at every meal and raise daily protein targets to about 1.2–1.6 g/kg (0.5–0.7 g/lb) of body weight—up from the older 0.8 g/kg standard. For a human consuming real food on repeat, these numbers do not matter. If you are struggling with obesity, food cravings, depression, anxiety, OCD, or sarcopenia, then pay attention to this one.
2. Healthy fats and full-fat dairy reintroduced
Foods like whole-fat dairy and healthy fats (including butter, olive oil, and beef tallow) are now back on the menu. Whole fat creates satiation, leading to improved appetite control, and enables absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K. Maybe our population-level deficiencies in these vitamins are related to decades of marketing propagating the “whole fat is dangerous” ideology.
3. Whole foods over ultra-processed foods
Highly processed foods, sugary drinks, energy drinks, and added and artificial sugars are not meant for human consumption. It seems like there ought to be a panel discussion asking these manufacturers why they are making and promoting junk food rather than finding innovative ways to get more fruits and vegetables in front of humans. Just an outrageous thought.
4. The food pyramid has been inverted
For the first time in years, the government replaced MyPlate with an inverted pyramid focusing on meat, fruits, vegetables, and fat from whole food sources rather than extracted, degummed, deodorized, and bleached sources. What reasonable dietitian would not celebrate this? Well, the majority in America.
5. Reduce added sugar
It is our time to come off the 2 cups of white sugar in a dozen chocolate chip cookies and 5 tablespoons in a serving of flavored yogurt.
Keep your health journey related to food inputs simple: Eat REAL food on repeat! Health accumulation is not rocket science, but you will have to decide to leave the bag of chips and bucket of ice cream at the grocery store 50 weeks out of the year.