Is This Why Americans Are So Fat??

 I may have mentioned to gentle readers on a number of occasions that cattle do not contribute any new carbon to the atmosphere.  They merely recycle carbon that is already in the carbon cycle.  Thus, even if we give the devil his due and say that anthropogenic carbon dioxide is causing global warming, (and it is not) cattle ranching is not part of it.

Recently, the government produced a new food pyramid supposedly to improve our "health."  You can see this pyramid at the Good Ranchers site in a blogpost entitled New Government Funded "Food-Pyramid" Says Lucky Charms Are Healthier Than Steak. And if you beliefe that, I have a bridge to sell you in New York City, but you will have to move it yourself.

Buckle up. This one is a doozy. You probably missed it, but in September 2022, the White House hosted a conference that focused on nutrition, health, and hunger in America. Dariush Mozaffarian, who was one of the main organizers of the event and is currently Dean of the Tufts School of Nutrition — presented a newly designed food pyramid that only cost 3 years of time and millions of taxpayer dollars. The new wisdom they found? Lucky Charms are healthier than steak.

...snip...

As you can see, Lucky Charms receives a 60 while ground beef is at a 26. Beef Steak ranked a little above 30 on the chart, which means both beef items received half the score of Lucky Charms. If we turn our attention to the green section, we see that chocolate covered almonds received a 78 and should “be encouraged” in someone’s diet. Chocolate covered nuts should be encouraged while beef and a majority of commonly consumed meats should be minimized.

This new food pyramid is being touted as the most comprehensive and science-based nutrient profiling system to date, which honestly just isn’t a surprise anymore. This is happening in a country where congress declared pizza to be a vegetable, and if tomato paste can make pizza a vegetable then maybe luck can make the charms healthy.

Now, I don't want to tell anyone what to eat, but my own cardiologist said to me once that if I wanted to lose weight, the best way was to cut down on the carbs. And the worst carbohydrates one can eat, in terms of fattening a person up are any of the grains. Those would be wheat and wheat products, corn and corn products, oats, barely, rice etc. Sugar in all its forms is of course not good for you. Similarly, vegetable oils like corn oil and canola oil are not recommended.

So, what should you eat if you are keeping your weight down? Well, meat, eggs, fish, vegetables like broccoli and brussels sprouts, the occasional carrots and sweet potatoes. You can also eat moderate amounts of nuts and fruits in season (without sugar, of course.)  Counterintuitively, heathy fats should make up a substantal amount of your diet by calorie count.  These would be olive oil, cocoanut oil, pork fat (which is delicious, by the way.)  Whatever you do, don't eat highly processed foods like Lucky Charms.