You may have heard that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S Department of Agriculture recently released new dietary guidelines, illustrated with a new food pyramid.

Well, not really a pyramid, but an upside-down triangle.

As it was publicly announced by Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., it, as with anything that could be considered even remotely political these days, the new guidelines immediately stirred up controversy. Some heralded them as the health breakthrough of the century that will allow us to live in good health well beyond the age of 200, while others denounced them as an anti-scientific apocalypse that is sure to kill us all!

I think I’m only slightly exaggerating!

The reality is that despite the illustration literally turning things upside-down from the old food pyramid (with the point at the top, rather than the new and improved one that has it at the bottom), the actual changes in nutrition recommendations are pretty minor.

The key “new” recommendation can be summed up as “eat real food” and minimize the intake of processed foods - not exactly an earth-shaking development and certainly not something that can really be considered controversial.

Probably the biggest difference between the old pyramid and the new one, and the one that has the nutrition world up in arms is the somewhat conflicting recommendations that deal with protein and saturated fat intake.

Looking at protein first, the new guidelines increase the recommended intake from 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day in the old guidelines to 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram (or about 0.5 to 0.75 grams per pound) per day in the new guidelines. The new guideline goes on to recommend getting protein from a variety of both animal (meats, dairy, eggs, etc.) and plant-based (nuts, seeds, beans, etc.) sources. In and of itself, this is probably a good overall recommendation, but it’s how it interacts with the new recommendations on saturated fat that has created some controversy.

During the press conference unveiling of the new guidelines, RFK said that we were ending the war on saturated fat. This is reflected by the recommendations for greater protein intake from meat and full fat dairy products (specifically mentioned in the new guidelines in contrast to low-fat in the old recommendations) like whole milk, which happen to be relatively high in saturated fat. It’s even further reflected by the specific suggestion of butter and beef tallow for cooking.

But the older guideline that specifically addresses saturated fat intake still remains in the new guidelines – keeping saturated fat to 10% or less of total daily calorie intake. That’s going to be difficult to do if one is following the recommendation to get the amount of protein discussed above from beef and other meats and full-fat dairy products, and frying foods in butter or beef tallow.

So, what to do?

Well, going back to the overall recommendation to “eat real food,” that’s a good place to start. Reducing or eliminating processed foods as much as possible from the diet will in and of itself tend to push things in a healthier direction.

Regarding the protein/saturated fat issues, I think the recommendation to aim for a protein intake of 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day from a variety of both animal and plant sources is a good one. I also think keeping saturated fat intake from beef and dairy products to somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% of total daily calories is probably a sound recommendation.

In order to keep from going way over on saturated fat intake, I suggest cooking with olive oil or avocado oil more than with butter or beef tallow. Coconut oil, despite being mostly saturated fat, is also a reasonably healthy cooking oil, as the saturated fat in it is processed differently in the body than saturated fat from animal sources. You can further moderate saturated fat content by choosing leaner cuts of meat and reduced-fat dairy.

Ultimately, the new food pyramid/upside-down triangle, is really not that big of a departure from previous food guidelines as the controversy would suggest. At it’s core, the message it sends is “eat real food,” and as simple as it is, it’s probably the most beneficial recommendation on diet that can be made.

Until next time…

George F. Best, D.C.