Who Invented the Food Pyramid and Why You'd Be Crazy to Follow It

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The very first “food pyramid” was a Swedish invention and it was an invention of necessity more than anything else. Back in 1970s, Sweden saw its country gripped by high food prices. The government then tasked The Socialstyrelsen (National Board of Health and Welfare) with coming up with a way to help the situation. In response to this, in 1972, they came up with “basic” and “supplementary” foods- in a nutshell basic foods were foods considered essential to a person’s well-being and supplementary foods were foods that provided vitamins and minerals basic foods did not.

Sources:

[zacharyouten]

My government is taking money from lobbyists to lie to me? I'm shocked!

[Gnoggin]

Last year I literally flipped the food pyramid, 70% of my diet was fat, and there were NO grains at all.
Since then I've lost 170 pounds, have WAY good control of diabetes, have way more energy, and life is just all around better.

The Food Pyramid was

[TheJollyMisanthrope]

Food Pyramid = Consume mostly the products that corporate farming can produce cheaply.

[thomashenley]

Thats why I love pizza, its all the food groups in one convenient hand held triangle

[Ashendal]

Yet another reason on the immense list to limit lobbying by corporations in every way possible and enact harsh punishments if they are found to be influencing politicians.

[eetadakimasu]

There was also a point where eggs were lumped in with dairy, a point that still causes confusion to this day

[BigSlimyBlob]

I lost decades of my life to these murderous dietary guidelines.
It's when I tried keto that everything changed for me. All the crippling illnesses that I was suffering from (and didn't even realize I had) suddenly vanished, and the shock finally broke the illusion.
After a lot of research, I found out where these guidelines come from, and it's beyond outrageous.

[CatsMeowPaw]

I remember ads in Australia saying every child needs a glass of milk, a piece of cheese, and a tub of yogurt, every day. Obviously this was a message purchased by the dairy industry as it was very careful to spread dairy consumption across every major group of product.

[keirarogan]

Lobbying is just so strange to me... where I come from that’s just bribery and super illegal!

[yurdp]

That damn pyramid set us back 40 years, the parents of my generation bought it hook, line, and sinker. Now we’re fat, out of shape, and riddled with diabetes.

[Floordford]

Greed ruined this too? I'm starting to understand how conspiracy theorist feel. "It's all a government lie, man. The food industry bought the right to tell you what you should eat."

[ahleenah]

Funnily enough, I got so many health issues resolved when I cut down foods containing dairy, wheat and sugar and started eating _more_ salt

[t.c.]

Yet another thing that was attempted to be forced down my throat as a student.

Teachers always hated when you questioned and tried to break down their lessons, I see why now. They arnt/wernt always right.

[burmecian]

"Good wholesome foods at reasonable prices."

Also known as [Delicious Dishes Done Dirt Cheap]

[jesperbc]

Being Danish, I especially LOVE how you pronounced "Socialstyrelsen" in this. The other Swedish names were great too, but the way you accentuated "styrelsen" was phenomenally funny! 🤣

[CBrown]

I've seen a lot of content about this lately. I'm glad it's getting more exposure because this is something I've known about (but am getting more depth on) for a long time.

[multiplyx]

My father, one of the top biologists in the country, has always said that avoiding salt was a fallacy. He said that you simply excrete what you don't need, and our biochemistry after all evolved in the highly salty oceans. It's something that the body easily regulates, as long as you have enough salt in your diet. I'm glad that you make it clear in the video that there's no evidence for salt reduction being beneficial.

[aff]

I think one important distinction to make about dairy is that just because you don't need it, doesn't mean it isn't good for you. Too much of it can be a bad thing, but it isn't wasted calories, milk used to literally be my breakfast back when I couldn't keep anything else down in the morning

[socialmoth]

Does anyone actually follow the food pyramid? I never have. I always thought that many servings of items a day seemed excessive. Go figure, I'm still thin at 44 years old.

[joannivaldi]

I'm surprised that with all the lobbying done in the food pyramid, MacDonald's and Burger King didn't make it on the level of the essential foods.